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.