Former Dean, Labor Secretary Dies

John T. Dunlop, a preeminent labor economist who served as U.S. secretary of Labor under President Gerald Ford and as dean of the Faculty from 1969-73, died last Thursday morning. He was 89.

During a lifelong career in dispute resolution Dunlop juggled responsibilities in government, academia and the private sector.

“As a teacher, he helped develop generations of labor economists. As a scholar, he was a leading figure in furthering our understanding of labor markets and institutions. As a practitioner, he played an indispensable role in finding common ground between labor unions, employers, and government,” former University President Derek Bok told the Harvard Gazette.

Because of his versatility and his ability as a problem solver, Dunlop was called on again and again by his country, by the University and by both sides of the labor movement to smooth the way toward practical solutions.

“He could talk in the language of labor leaders and also in the language of Harvard professors,” Bok said.

In Cambridge

The Lamont University Professor Emeritus, Dunlop served as dean of the Faculty from 1969 to 1973.

The period was a tumultuous one, characterized by residual student unrest on the campus following the student takeover of University Hall in 1969.

“He was an absolutely pivotal figure during all the trouble in the late 60s and early 70s,” Dunlop’s successor as Dean of the Faculty Henry Rosovsky said. “He was one of the people who kept the university together.”

Bok concurred that Dunlop went above and beyond the call of duty in aiding Harvard in its time of need.

“His talents happened to be available to Harvard at a period of maximum need. It was a period of great demoralization among the faculty and anger among the students,” said Bok, who was dean of the Law School at the time. “John was quite upset about the way the faculty was behaving. I remember him saying to me once in the Faculty Club, ‘Either I’m going to leave this place or I’m going to…try and straighten it out.’”

Those who worked with him said he did so—and his administrative legacy was shaped accordingly.

“John Dunlop led this Faculty, and served this University, in more ways, and with more distinction, than can ordinarily be accorded one human being,” Dean of the Faculty William C. Kirby wrote in an e-mail. “He scrutinized the University’s structures of governance, and its fundamental purposes, during a period of serious institutional reformulation.”

Taking the helm of the college at such a troubled time was a selfless gesture on Dunlop’s part, Bok said, as he was not fond of administrative duties.

“He gave up two years of his life to helping Harvard through that time,” Bok said.

To students at the College during his time as dean, Dunlop was the voice of authority, said Peter Shapiro ’74, who covered Dunlop for The Crimson.

“This is a man who was a giant academic, an incredible respected leader of the faculty and who had a larger than life presence.”

He made an impression on those students with whom he dealt, Shapiro said, but he maintained a certain distance.

“He was someone of strong opinions that he voiced readily without any concern for what we today refer to as political correctness, a fine dry sense of humor and a tremendous degree of self-confidence,” Shapiro said.

In addition to the administrative role he played, Dunlop was a vitally important figure in the shaping of labor relations at Harvard.

When he represented the University in contract negotiations with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers from 1988-1989, Dunlop’s efforts met with approval from both sides.

“I think the very constructive record we have [in labor relations at Harvard] had its roots in John’s effort,” Bok said.

Dunlop first came to Harvard in 1938, becoming an associate professor of economics in 1945 and a full professor in 1950.

In 1971 he was named Lamont University Professor.

From 1961-1966, Dunlop chaired the economics department .

He helped to found the Trade Union Program, known today as the Labor and Work Life Program, the Ph.D. program in business economics, the Joint Center for Housing Studies, the Program in Business and Government and a slew of other initiatives.

From 1940 to 1970, Dunlop worked on nine books on industrial and labor relations as a writer, a co-writer or editor.

His book Industrial Relations Systems (1958), was the first study to bring structure to the examination of collective bargaining and labor relations.

In it, Dunlop examines the interplay of technology, market forces and organized labor in industrial relations.

Other works include Wage Determination Under Trade Unions (1944), Collective Bargaining: Principles and Cases (1949), Labor in the Twentieth Century (1978) and Labor and the American Community (1970), which he co-authored with Bok.

Although Dunlop retired from the Harvard faculty in 1985, he remained involved in the University even in recent years.

“His car was always in the Littauer parking lot at seven in the morning even after he retired” Rosovsky said.

Dunlop taught the freshman seminar “The American Workplace: The Roles of Business, Labor and Government” as recently as the spring of 2003.

Winthrop Ruml ’04, who was a member of Dunlop’s seminar in the spring of 2001 remembers him as being spry and sharp at 86.

“Considering his age at the time he taught the seminar, he was remarkably mobile, and his mental agility was unimpaired. He told me that he stayed fit by walking 2-3 miles every day near his house,” Ruml wrote in an e-mail.

“He often entertained us with amusing stories about presidents in which he referred to those presidents by their first names,” Ruml wrote.

“John Dunlop was a towering figure in Harvard’s history,” University President Lawrence H. Summers told The Gazette. “As a scholar, dean, secretary of labor, and an adviser to countless institutions, John Dunlop was a major contributor to the life of our nation and to our university.”

In Washington

Dunlop’s sphere of influence was not confined within the Yard’s Ivy walls. He was reputed to fly to Washington as many as 50 times a year.

He served as an economic advisor to Franklin D. Roosevelt and worked with every subsequent president through Bill Clinton.

Harry S Truman relied on Dunlop to help with steel prices; Dwight D. Eisenhower called on him to end a rail crisis; and John F. Kennedy asked him to assist in preventing labor disputes at missile construction sites. Richard Nixon sought his advice on wage and price guidelines.

Dunlop served as secretary of labor under Gerald Ford from March 1975 to January 1976, resigning when Ford did not sign a bill which would have enabled unions to picket construction sites more easily.

Dunlop had promised organized labor his signature on the bill, in exchange for assurances from the construction unions that they would moderate their wage demands.

“He felt he had to resign. He felt his credentials had been impaired; the rug had been pulled out from under him,” Bok said. “In contrast to people who hang on to office until last possible minute, John said, ‘I can’t be effective so I’m going to leave.’”

Bok said he remembers visiting Dunlop in Washington during his term as a cabinet secretary.

He recalled walking into the secretary’s office to find a vast, empty room, which looked as if it had never been used.

“Way in the corner was a little light in a kind of broom closet and there was Dunlop,” Bok said. “He had a total lack of pretension; he was more at home in a rundown office.”

During Dunlop’s short time as secretary he focused on practical implementation of policy that was already in place.

“He worked with the General Accounting Office to find out what really happens to this mass of Federal regulations about the workplace that exist,” Bok said. “John’s feeling was that people churn out these reams of paper rules and very often people out in the field don’t even know of their existence.”

Dunlop conducted a survey, which indicated that in fact a fairly high percentage of the rules were not known, Bok said.

Dunlop held a number of other government positions including director of the Cost of Living Council (1973-74), chair of the Construction Industry Stabilization Committee (1971-1974), and chair of the Commission of the Future of Worker / Management Relations (1993-1995).

“He shared his wisdom as an economist and labor negotiator not only with our students for nearly fifty years, but with the highest circles in our nation’s government,” Kirby wrote. “He shaped this school, and the world beyond this school. His strength and integrity will be missed.”

In the Beginning

Dunlop was born in Placerville, California in 1914, the oldest of 7 children.

His parents John and Antonia were Presbyterian missionaries who reared him in the Philippines.

After finishing high school there, Dunlop entered Marin Community College in California, shortly thereafter transferring to the University of California at Berkeley, where he earned his bachelors degree in 1935 and his Ph.D. in 1939.

Dunlop’s wife of 66 years, Dorothy Emily Webb died in February 2003.

He is survived by a daughter, Beverly Claire Donohue of New York City and two sons, John of Palo Alto, Calif. and Thomas of Belmont, Mass., as well as six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Plans for a memorial service have not yet been announced.

—Staff writer Ella A. Hoffman can be reached at ehoffman@fas.harvard.edu.