Emery Bacon

Hall of Fame Class of 1996

During the Second World War, CIO President Philip Murray assigned Emery Bacon, a member of the international union's staff, to develop with the War Manpower Commission programs for the settlement of disputes within the steel industry. A nation-wide program known as Union Job Relations resulted.

Immediately following the war in 1946, Murray requested Bacon to explore the possibilities of persuading the Land Grant and public universities to cooperate in establishing a nation-wide program of labor institutes for the education and training of the union's directors, staff and local union members. Beginning with the Pennsylvania State College, there developed a unique and pioneering cooperative relationship, between some 45 institutions of higher learning and a great labor organization of more than 1,500,000 members.

Emery Bacon attended Wooster College, The University of Pittsburgh, its Graduate School and its Law School. Later, as a senior Fulbright, he attended Oxford University. Following graduation, he taught Latin and Greek, his majors, and was an adjunct faculty member at Pitt's Business School. After leaving the Steelworkers, he became assistant to the president of West Virginia University. Finally entering government service, President Johnson appointed him Executive Director, the Federal Interagency Committee on Education. Emery Bacon has two sons at Exeter and Harvard. Donald is on the faculty at Stanford University and David practices law in California.