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.