Interviews 311 - 320

Each Guide entry contains information about an interview, including biographical data about the interviewee (name, vital dates, dates at the UW-Madison, and principal positions held as of the interview date), information about the interview (interviewer, year conducted, length, and series, transcript, and restriction information if applicable), and a list of key topics discussed in the interview. For more detailed information about an interview, or to obtain a copy of an interview contact the Oral History Program.

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Wane of institutionalism in Economics Department in late 1940s; Inbreeding; New faculty and move toward econometrics; Changes in discipline of economics; Conflict in Department in 1950s; Arrangements with School of Commerce; Heyday of interest in economic development; Protest era; Time in Asia; Changes in faculty salaries; Changes in Department social life.

Economics Department under Richard Ely and John R. Commons; Research sources; Selig Perlman tenure case; Institutional period; Hiring of econometricians by Edwin Young; School for Workers; Women and minorities in Department; Issues in teaching economics; Department as guild; Department conservatism and protest era; Department chairmanship.

Industrial Relations Center; Industrial Relations Research Institute (IRRI); Intellectual basis of the IRRI; Departmentalization; Faculty recruitment; Curriculum of industrial relations; Student recruitment; Study of industrial relations.

313.   JOHNSON, David B.  (1918- )
Graduate Student; Professor of Economics; Dean of International Studies and Programs
At UW: 1947-1949; 1957-1988

First Interview

Interviewed: 1985	Length: 1.5 hours
Series: Department of Economics Interviewer: Julie Nelson

Teachers' union; Traditions of chairmanship in Economics Department; Period as associate chairman; Hiring undergraduate chairman; Move to new building; Pleasure of working in administration in early 1960s; Guy Orcutt's impact on Department; SSRI; Reduction of course load; Protest era; University Committee; Interest in international affairs in 1950s and 1960s; Ford grant for work in economic development; Decline in research support; IRRI; Hiring blacks; Women in Department.

Educational and career background; Industrial Relations Research Institute; Departmentalization; Graduate student funding.

Background; Stanford; Year in England; Research work at Harvard; War work; Appointment at UW; Chemistry Department; Chemistry Building; Chairmanship; Research.

Background; Oberlin College; Work on Early Modern English Dictionary; Ph.D. work and teaching at Michigan; His wife; Development of field of linguistics; Arrival at UW in 1939; Work on Linguistic Atlas of the North Central States; Research, funding and editing of Dictionary of Jamaican English; Questionnaires for lexicographic field research; American Dialect Society and genesis of Dictionary of American Regional English (DARE); Editing DARE; Funding; Audrey Duckert; Research; Field work; Editing; Computer use.

Background and education; Graduate work in biochemistry; Work under and with Karl Link, Harry Steenbock, Carl Baumann, Conrad Elvehjem and Van Potter; Founding of McArdle Laboratory; History of Millers' research and collaboration.

Reasons for coming to UW; Research projects in 1950s; Research in enzymology; Chemistry Department; Issues in life science programs during deanship; Relationship between UW and state industry; Enrollment and federal funding; Decision to leave UW for MIT.

Background; Arrival at UW in 1963; Work of UW economists in 1960s; Economic history group; Decline of applied economics at UW in 1970s; Comparison of UW and Harvard.

Background and early education; Experience in chemistry; Graduate school at MIT; Reasons for coming to UW; Techniques and instruments of synthetic chemistry; Chemistry Department; Project to produce organic metals; Other research projects; Issues in chemistry research; Patents and role of WARF; Importance of federal grants; Impact of Legislature and governors on decline of UW; Theoretical Chemistry Institute; Drawbacks of unionization in higher education.

Background; Coming to UW; WWII career; Atomic bomb; Teaching at UW; Geography Department; Establishment of Department of Meteorology; Time in Arizona; Committee on Future of Man; Recommendation for college of environmental studies, 1965; Reaction of College of Agriculture; School of Natural Resources; Development of new interdisciplinary institute; Nominations for directorship; His appointment; Rockefeller grant; Structure of Institute for Environmental Studies; Its problems; Hostility of other departments; Attracting graduate students; Relations with Graduate School; Issue of division of funds; Current status; Reflections on career.

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