A public memorial service for Professor Emeritus and former Dean of the Faculty, Orme W. Phelps, will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 14, at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum. Speakers will include President Pamela Gann, President Emeritus Jack Stark, Professor Ward Elliot, Professor Emeritus Gerald Eyrich, and grandson John Smith.
Professor Phelps died July 3 at 96. The son of a Civil War veteran, he was the last of the founding faculty hired by President George C.S. Benson in 1947. In addition to serving as professor of economics, he was also dean of the faculty under President Jack Stark. He was a Fulbright Research Scholar, a Ford Foundation Fellow, and a Brookings Research Professor; served as regional vice chairman of the Wage Stabilization Board; and was a noted labor arbitrator. Professor Phelps earned his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago, and his textbook, Introduction to Labor Economics, was required reading at more than 80 colleges and universities.
He is survived by his wife, Barbara; son Jackson Phelps, Portland, Oregon; son-in-law and daughter, Ted and Sally Phelps Smith, Cleveland, Ohio; 10 grandchildren and four great-grandchildren; and a sister, Emily Anne Woodward, Guelph, Canada. His wife of 40 years, Jean Wright Phelps, died in 1981. The family suggests memorials to the Orme Phelps Scholarship Fund at CMC.