Junker, Buford H. (Buford Helmholz), 1911-

Buford H. Junker was born September 19, 1911 in New York City. In 1929 he graduated from Pelham Memorial High School in Pelham, New York. In 1933 he received an A.B. cum laude in Anthropology from Harvard College. After his undergraduate, Junker pursued graduate work at Harvard conducting research in Anthropology until 1934. He continued his education at the University of Chicago in Sociology. His education at Chicago was discontinuous in the war years. He attended various quarters from 1937 – 1938, and in the post-war years. Junker eventually took his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Chicago in 1954.

During World War II, Junker served from 1941 – 1943 as a staff member with the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in Washington, D.C. From 1943 – 1945, as an Army Captain on active duty, Junker went overseas with the OSS to Allied Force Headquarters (AFHQ) in Algiers, Naples, Grenoble, Lyon, and Paris. From 1943 – 1944 he worked with the Psychological Warfare Branch, AFHQ, Army Services Forces, and Information and Education Division. In 1945 Junker returned to Washington, D.C. where he assisted Lt. Col. Charles Dollard in the Analysis and Planning Branch of the OSS. Junker was on Active Reserve until 1958 at which point he resigned as an Army Major.

Junker’s academic interests were diverse. In his dissertation, “Living Room Arrangements and Life Styles”, finished in 1954, Junker studied the placements of living room furnishings and their relationship and meaning to society, politics, and aesthetics. His dissertation synthesized what would be Junker’s lifelong interest in Sociology and Social Anthropology. This interest can be seen in the courses that Junker taught over the course of his teaching career at the University of Chicago, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Kentucky, and the University of Pittsburgh as well as a number of Chicago City colleges. Some of Junker’s classes that reflect this interest in sociology and social anthropology are: Human Problems of Industrial Organization; Human Relations in Industry; and, Culture, Society, and the Individual, to name a few.

In general, Junker’s teaching career is an accurate reflection of his hybrid interests. These interests include comparative studies of the peoples of the world with respect to their economic and social institutions. Further, Junker studied social organizations and symbolic behavior, and had an interest in the fundamental ways of operating selected organizations. In this last respect, Junker conducted voluminous research over the course of his career on Voluntary Organizations as well as Hospitals, Universities and Colleges, and Industrial Organizations. Junker’s interests, though diverse, were also fundamentally grounded in concerns for human beings. He conducted research in social and psychological conditions and processes of individual and group development in contemporary society, especially in educational and business organizations. He taught courses on The Community; Contemporary Communities; Societies Around the World; Sociological Analysis of American Society; Social Status and Learning; and The Individual in Society. Besides these interests, Junker also conducted research on race relations, social stratification, and occupations and professions.

The writings of Junker animate his sustained interest in community organizations and institutions. From 1939 – 1940, Junker conducted research in a project commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation to study the roots of opinion formation processes in a small Michigan city. The project took many iterations as essays and manuscripts the first of which was entitled “What Hometown Thinks About the War in 1940”. Junker changed the title in a later draft to “What Hometown Thought About the War in 1940” and further developed the project for its republication under the pseudonym John Flint as “Hometown: A Study of Social Stratification and Secondary Education”. Junker also worked on a similar research project that would be circulated as “Secondary Education in Dowagiac, Michigan: A Report to the Superintendent of Schools and the Dowagiac Board of Education”.

Some of Junker’s writings were products of his professional research projects. From 1955 – 1956, as director for Community Surveys, Inc., Junker and associates undertook a number of research projects that were later developed into publications like “Community Chest: A Case Study in Philanthropy”, and “Redevelopment: Some Human Gains and Losses”, the latter of which was a special study for the Indianapolis Redevelopment Commission. Junker also wrote various reviews of publications chiefly for The American Journal of Sociology, as well as entries to the Statistical Atlas of Southern Counties.

His most significant work may be “Field Work: an Introduction to the Social Sciences” published in 1960. The work grew out of an earlier research project started in 1951 on field training techniques that Junker had participated in at the University of Chicago with Everett Hughes, Ray Gold, and Dorothy Kittel. The work involved intensive research into the theory and practice of field studies which would help to further develop the burgeoning social sciences in the postwar years. Through myriad, meticulous field reports and interviews, the team worked toward a comprehensive introduction to field work. This work was connected to seminars Junker taught with Professor Everett Hughes on an Introduction to Field Methods as well as a special seminar on Field Observation.

Although much of his work centers on his career in academia, Junker participated in a number of research projects for private companies or non-profit organizations as a consultant, analyst, or director. In 1938 – 1939, Junker served as executive director of staff for the Negro Youth Study in Chicago which produced “Color and Human Nature”, an article co-authored by Junker. From 1940 – 1941 Junker received a fellowship from the General Education Board for study at the Institute of Child Welfare at the University of California, Berkeley.

In the postwar years from 1946 – 1954, Junker undertook various research activities for private or non-profits organizations. In 1946 he served on the Committee on Human Relations in Industry under director Dr. Burleigh B. Gardner. At the University of Chicago he conducted various research projects among which included an extensive study of Sears, Roebuck, & Company. From 1946 – 1949, Junker was Assistant Director of Social Research, Inc. (SRI), Chicago. During his tenure at SRI, he performed assorted organization studies and market research for Glenn L. Martin Company and Macfadden Publications, Inc., among others. From 1948 – 1951 at the University of Chicago, Junker served as an instructor in Sociology and sat on the board of the Committee on Human Development. He was a research associate and director of the Ford Foundation Social Sciences Project on Field Training, a report that would be privately circulated as “Cases on Field Work” and further developed for publication in “Field Work: an Introduction to the Social Sciences”.

From 1955 – 1956 Junker served in Indianapolis, Indiana as the director of Philanthropy Study, for Community Surveys, Inc. The work studied mass fundraising, and was sponsored by a not-for-profit corporation founded by the citizens of Indianapolis. From 1956 – 1957 Junker was a visiting lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Kentucky. From 1957 – 1959 Junker was Research Associate at the Administrative Science Center, and lecturer in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh. In the 1960s, Junker began teaching at Chicago City colleges. From 1959 – 1963 he was an Associate Professor of Sociology at the Wright Branch of Chicago City Junior College. From 1963 – 1976, Junker was Associate Professor, Professor, and Chairman of the Social Sciences Department at the Southeast Campus of Chicago City College. In his career, Junker held memberships with the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Anthropological Association, American Sociological Society, Society for Applied Anthropology, and Sigma Xi, a national honorary scientific society.

In 1937 Junker married Nancy E. Scott, who later died on November 28, 1947. In 1949, he remarried Gladys M. Willcutt, a longtime teacher of Mathematics at The Laboratory School, University of Chicago. They had no children.

From the guide to the Junker, Buford. Papers, 1930-1975, (Special Collections Research Center University of Chicago Library 1100 East 57th Street Chicago, Illinois 60637 U.S.A.)