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Herbert R. Northrup collection of Boulwarism research materials
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Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
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Herbert Roof Northrup was born on March 6, 1918 in Irvington, New Jersey. A graduate of Newark Academy, Northrup went on to receive his B.A. in economics from Duke University in 1939, where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa. Northrup was one of two scholar-athletes on Duke's championship baseball team. He earned his Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University in 1942, where he studied under noted economist Sumner H. Slichter. His dissertation examined black employment and the impact of unions and was entitled, Negro Labor and Union Policies in the South. Roof's dissertation was expanded and published in 1944 under the title, Organized Labor and the Negro.
Northrup began his professional career as an instructor at Cornell University but left after one year due to a lack of students. Unable to serve in the armed forces due to a knee injury, Northrup went to work for the War Labor Board's Tool and Die Commission in Detroit. During this time, Northrup met Eleanor Pearson, a statistician, whom he married in 1944. His position in Detroit was eliminated and Northrup was reassigned to the New York Regional Board as a senior hearing officer.
After the war, Northrup began a three year teaching stint at Columbia University and was elected to the National Board of the ACLU, serving as chairman of the Board's Committee on Civil Rights in Unions and Collective Bargaining. After parting ways with Columbia, he took the unusual step of leaving academia and taking a position with the Conference Board as a research economist in 1949. Northrup used his position at the Conference Board as a stepping stone from academia to industry, and later joined the consulting firm Ebasco as a senior consultant. Positions at Penn-Texas Corporation and General Electric soon followed.
Northrup left the corporate world in 1961 for a tenured professorship in the Department of Industry (now the Department of Management) at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. He succeeded George Taylor as chairman of the department in 1964, where he remained until his retirement in 1988.
Throughout his career, Northrup was a prolific writer publishing over 30 books and numerous articles. His textbook he co-authored with Gordon Bloom, Economics of Labor Relations, went through nine editions. His works analyzed many aspects of employment practices and he was proud of the influence his works on collective bargaining had on public policy. Northrup's expertise was sought after by government officials as he served as an advisor to the secretaries of labor in the Nixon and Reagan administrations.
Northrup passed away on October 22, 2007, leaving behind his wife, five children and seven grandchildren.
Gift of Herbert R. Northrup
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- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
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