During WWII Elizabeth J. Billett, as a WAVE, and Solomon B. Levine, as a Naval officer, attended the US Navy Japanese Language School from December 1942 to March 1944, then located at the University of Colorado in Boulder. Solomon B. Levine went on to serve at Pearl Harbor, Okinawa and Japan. Elizabeth J. Billett went on to serve in Washington DC where she translated documents. On December 24, 1943 Solomon B. Levine and Elizabeth J. Billett were married in Boulder, Colorado. The Levine’s have four children: Janet L. Thal (1948), Samuel B. (1951), Michael A. (1954), and Elliott M. (1961).
Solomon B. Levine was born in Boston, Massachusetts on August 10, 1920. Solomon Levine received his AB from Harvard in 1942 (magna cum laude), his MBA from Harvard in 1947 (with honors), and his Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1951. Solomon B. Levine’s professional career began as a teaching assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1947 to 1949. Levine then began teaching at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana from 1949 to 1969. At the University of Illinois he held various positions including, Research Associate with the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations (ILIR), Professor of Labor and Industrial Relations and Asian Studies, Director of the Center for Asian Studies, and Chairman of the Center for International Comparative Studies. From 1969 to 1989 Solomon B. Levine taught at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At the University of Wisconsin Levine held the positions of Assistant to the Dean of International Studies and Programs, Director of the National Resource Center for East Asian Languages and Area Studies, Member of the East Asian Studies Program, Member of the Council for Japanese Studies, Participating Faculty Member of the Industrial Relations Research Institute, and as a Professor of Business and Economics. Solomon B. Levine retired from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1989 and was designated an Emeritus Professor of Business and Economics. Levine also held numerous visiting research and teaching positions at Universities around the world.
Solomon B. Levine’s publications include: Industrial Relations in Postwar Japan (Univ. Illinois Press, 1958), Workers and Employers in Japan: The Japanese Relations System, co-edited with Kazuo Okochi and Bernard Karsh (Tokyo Univ. Press and Priceton Univ. Press, 1973), Human Resources in Japanese Industrial Development, with Hisashi Kawada (Princeton Univ. Pressm 1980), THE ANNALS: Japan’s External Economic Relations: Japanese Perspectives, co-edited with Koji Taira (Vol. 513, January 1991), and various other book chapters, articles, and papers.
Elizabeth J. Billett was born in Lewistown, Pennsylvania on June 7, 1922. Elizabeth J. Billett received her BS from Pennsylvania State University in 1942, a certificate from the Harvard-Radcliffe Business Program in 1947, and her MA from the University of Illinois in 1965. Elizabeth J. Billett’s professional career began as and Junior Chemist for the Food and Drug Administration from 1942 to 1945. After World War II, Mrs. Levine worked as the assistant director of the Harvard-Radcliffe Management Training Program from 1947 to 1948. From 1965 to 1969 Elizabeth J. Levine began working at the University of Illinois as the Assistant Director of the Institute of Labor and Industrial Relations. Mrs. Levine worked as the Assistant to the Chairman in the Department of Psychology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison from September 1969 to July 1987. Elizabeth J. Levine also held various part-time positions and is involved in various volunteer activities.
From the guide to the Solomon B. and Elizabeth J. Levine Collection, 1942-2000, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Archives Dept.)
