Hauser, Philip M., 1909-1994

Sociologist.

Brooklyn, N.Y. businessman. Son of Herman Hauser, jeweler in Leadville, Colo. 1879-1884.

Professor of Sociology, University of Chicago.

Member, International Fraternity of Lambda Alpha, Ely Chapter.

Philip Morris Hauser was born September 27, 1909, in Chicago, to Morris and Anna Diamond Hauser. He attended Austin High School and Central YMCA College of Arts and Sciences in Chicago before entering the University of Chicago in 1928. He received all of his degrees at the University of Chicago, a Ph.D. in 1929, an A.M. in 1933, and a Ph.D. in 1938. Hauser married Zelda B. Abrams in 1935, and they had two children, William Barry, born 1939, and Martha Ann, born 1941.

Hauser was an Instructor of Sociology at the University of Chicago from 1932 to 1937, and also taught courses during this time at YMCA College. After a period of government service in Washington, D.C., he returned to the University of Chicago in 1947 as a Professor of Sociology. He served as Associate Dean of the Division of Social Sciences from 1949 to 1952, and as chairman of the Department of Sociology from 1956-1965. In addition, he was director of the Chicago Community Inventory and the Population Research and Training Center, research enterprises connected with the Sociology Department. In 1974 Hauser was named the first Lucy Flower Professor in Urban Sociology. By the time he retired in 1977, Hauser's affiliation with the University of Chicago had spanned nearly 50 years.

The "Chicago School" of sociology was in its heyday at the time Hauser was a student. He took his first courses in sociology at YMCA College from Louis Wirth, a recent University of Chicago graduate. After entering the University of Chicago, Hauser studied with Robert Park, Ernest Burgess and Ellsworth Faris, and as a graduate student did some of the footwork for monographs being published by younger professors such as Herbert Blumer and John Landesco. Hauser's work was marked by characteristics of the "Chicago School" including the emphasis on "human ecology," the study of the urban environment, and the idea that sociologists should take an active role in applying their knowledge to social problems and the formation of public policy. The most influential professor for Hauser was William Fielding Ogburn, who specialized in statistical methods. Although Hauser had done much of his early work in crime and penology, he became increasingly involved in population studies and vital statistics.

Hauser's career with the government began when he worked as an enumerator for the 1930 census. In 1934, he accepted a position with the Federal Emergency Relief Administration in Chicago; within a few months he was transferred to Washington, D.C., and became chief of the Laboratory Inventory Section. Hauser was responsible for compiling the two-volume Workers on Relief in the United States in March, 1935. Although he returned to Chicago in 1936 to finish his Ph.D. degree, he continued to oversee the project to its completion. In 1937 he went back to Washington, this time to work for the Bureau of the Census. Hauser was assistant chief statistician for the National Unemployment Census of 1937-38, and in 1942 became assistant director of the Census Bureau. From 1945 to 1947 he worked concurrently as an assistant to the Secretary of the Department of Commerce.

Hauser was largely responsible for the scientific development of the Census Bureau during the 1940s, both in terms of designing and implementing systems for collecting and tabulating data, and of demonstrating the potential uses of census information, especially to businesses. In 1946 he co-edited Government Statistics for Business Use, which described what kinds of information could be obtained from the government, and how government statistics might be used to solve business and economic problems.

Although he returned to academic life at the University of Chicago in 1947, Hauser continued to serve the government in various capacities. He was the U.S. representative to the Population Commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council from 1947 to 1951. Due to the sudden illness of the director of the Census Bureau in 1949, he was called back to Washington as acting director only months before the 1950 decennial census was scheduled to begin. In addition to looking after the administration of the Bureau at this crucial time, he made many public appearances to explain the nature and purpose of the census to ensure cooperation with the enumerators. In 1951-1952 Hauser spent 15 months in Burma as a statistical expert for the U.N. Technical Assistance Administration, and later took a similar assignment in Thailand.

He returned to Southeast Asia many times to work with governments and universities in developing vital statistics and modern training in population studies. Throughout the remainder of his career Hauser participated in conferences, advisory panels, and research projects for the federal government, the city of Chicago, and the United Nations, dealing with problems such as urban growth, desegregation, aging, and fertility control.

Active in his profession as a sociologist and demographer, Hauser served terms as president of the American Statistical Association, the Population Association of America, the Sociological Research Association and the American Sociological Association. He helped organize the Organization of Demographic Associates, a professional association based in Singapore. He took part frequently in seminars and conferences in the U.S. and Asia concerned with standards of measurement and interpretation of demographic data.

Hauser wrote numerous articles on population trends and problems, statistical methods, and uses for census data, which were published in journals, magazines, books and government reports. The books he authored and edited include Local Community Fact Book for Chicago, 1950 (with Evelyn M. Kitagawa, 1953), The Study of Population: An Inventory and Appraisal (ed., with Otis Dudley Duncan, 1959), The Population Dilemma (ed., 1963), and World Population Problems (1965). In addition, Hauser served as an editorial advisor to several journals and publishers, including Encyclopaedia Britannica.

By the mid-1950s, Hauser was one of the nation's foremost experts on population studies. Because of his position at the University of Chicago and his experience in the Census Bureau, the United Nations and in Southeast Asia, he was often called upon to explain and interpret population data to a wide variety of audiences. Hauser was a popular speaker; in addition to appearing on government panels and at academic conferences, he was a frequent guest on TV and radio shows, and spoke before business conventions and community groups such as the City Club of Chicago, the Mortgage Bankers Association of America, and the Planned Parenthood Association.

The titles of some of Hauser's speeches and papers suggest the range of topics to which he directed his attention: "Census Facts Sell Advertising" (1950); "Facing the Implications of an Aging Population" (1953); "The 1960 Census and Its Implications for Libraries" (1961); "Population and Housing in Chicago, 1960" (1963); "On Development of Population Policy" (1969); "Implications of the Population Explosion, Implosion, and Displosion for Schools of Business" (1972); and "Population versus Food: Who Will Win the Race?" (1975).

Hauser was not so much an innovator or theorist as an implementer, one who applied the latest developments in sociological and demographical knowledge to specific problems: in government, to the collection of statistics, to planning and forming policy; in academics, to the training of demographers in the U.S. and in developing countries; in business, to demonstrating the usefulness of population statistics for marketing strategies; before public audiences, to explain sociological research and statistics in laymen's terms, and to forecast from current trends what might be in store for the future.