"[1] His father worked his way through Harvard Medical School and served as a front-line surgeon in World War II.
In his medical career, he became "a fixture at Massachusetts General Hospital for more than 40 years, was an innovative surgeon, a tireless worker, prolific researcher and an advocate of building strong ties with his patients, themes that would come to be synonymous with his...son.
In his senior year, Welch received the Headmaster's Award for Outstanding Student and graduated summa cum laude.
In 1964, Welch accepted a position in the political science department at the University at Buffalo, the largest and most comprehensive campus within the SUNY system.
He was selected one of nine faculty members from the SUNY system to serve on the university-wide Advisory Council on Distinguished Service Professorships, 2009–12.
Since 1969, he participated in about 60 dissertation committees, chairing more than 30 of them, and he served as an outside reader for other departments at UB as well as other universities, for example, in Canada and South Africa.
In addition, Welch taught at the Global Perspectives Academy and presented special seminars for the University Honors Program: Africa through Novels and Films, International Human Rights, and Women's and Men's Language (with Jeannette Ludwig).
As associate vice president for Academic Affairs in 1976–80, Welch worked as the number two person for non-health sciences-related matters.
He also served UB by chairing Faculty Senate committees on Budget Priorities, Governance, Academic Planning, Public Service, Student Affairs, and Teaching Effectiveness.
He chaired the President's Review Board on Appointments, Promotions, and Tenure[10] for three years and served three-year terms on two other occasions.
In 2008, UB President John B. Simpson appointed Welch to the Campaign Advisory Group as one of three faculty members on a 15-person team to help improve fundraising efforts.
He evaluated article manuscripts for Armed Forces & Society, African Studies Review, Journal of Developing Areas, and Journal of Modern African Studies and grant proposals for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation, the United States Institute of Peace, and the Fulbright program.
He was on the academic advisory committee for graduate programs at the U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, 1999–2004.
"[1] However, he quickly adjusted to the environment of university life and "as he began teaching honors seminars in the late 1980s, he realized he could utilize some of the principles of those smaller classes—such as debate and classroom discussion—and apply them to what had typically been larger, lecture-based classes.
"[1] The article published in UB Honors Today describes the influence Welch had on his students, prompting many of them to pursue graduate degrees in political science.
His last major volume on this topic, tentatively titled Protecting Human Rights Globally: Strategies and Roles of International NGOs, remains unfinished as of this writing.
Countries he visited include Brazil, Cameroon, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Gambia, Ghana, Germany, Great Britain, Kenya, Lesotho, Namibia, Nigeria, Norway, People's Republic of China, Philippines, Russia, Senegal, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Togo, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.
One of his early appointments was chairman of the UNESCO Evaluation Commission, Alvin Ikoku College of Education in Owerri, Nigeria, in January 1977.
Welch's 14 books and many published articles address three interdisciplinary areas: Africa, the political roles of armed forces (civil–military relations), and human rights.
Welch's first book, Dream of Unity: Pan-Africanism and Political Unification in West Africa,[16] (1966) drew from his doctoral dissertation.
"Professor Welch's meticulous scholarship, applied to West Africa only, has produced the kind of book required for better understanding of the substance of international relations.
"[22] Welch returned to similar themes in 1976 in an edited volume, Civilian Control of the Military: Theory and Cases from Developing Countries.
This volume examines problems of ensuring effective returns to the barracks of armed forces following coups d'état in three West African countries (Ghana, Nigeria, and Côte d'Ivoire) and three Andean states (Bolivia, Colombia, and Peru).
The Journal Armed Forces & Society describes the book as a "welcome scholarly contribution that enhances our understanding of the intricacies of voluntary military disengagement from politics.
"[27] In the Journal of Interamerican Studies and World Affairs,[28] David Pion-Berlin describes Welch's "timely, much-needed comparative study of military withdrawal from power.... Disengagement, [Welch] posits, is conditioned by institutional variables such as role perceptions, budgetary allotments, and military missions and deployment, and broader political variables such as levels of domestic conflict, economic trends, and political leadership."
He served on the board of directors for the Harvard Club of Western New York (1998–2001) and the African American Cultural Center of Buffalo.
In 2000, he received the first Claude E. Welch Jr. award for outstanding voluntarism on behalf of the Buffalo Council on World Affairs (now Buffalo-Niagara WorldConnect), 2000.
Welch was vice president of CAUSE (Coalition for Action, Unity, and Social Equality), 1970–71; secretary of the Buffalo-area branch of American Civil Liberties Union, 1972–74; served on the board of directors of the African American Cultural Center[38] of Buffalo, 1967–74; and for several years as a lecturer for in service courses given for secondary school teachers in Williamsville, Niagara Falls, Hamburg, Lockport, Cheektowaga, and Buffalo.
[39] Welch participated in and was a one-day champion in the television program "Jeopardy" along with competitors Mike Stafford and Nancy Neff, which aired as the 23rd episode of the 1987 season.
In 2014, the American Political Science Association presented a Distinguished Scholar award[41] to Welch for his work in human rights.