Richard L. Simpson (1929–2017), Editor, Social Forces (1969–1972 and 1983–2004)

Abstract

... Richard Lee (Dick) Simpson died on December 30, 2017, after a period of declining health. He received his BA and PhD in Sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and served on the UNC-Chapel Hill faculty from 1956 to his retirement as a Kenan Distinguished Professor of Sociology in 2004. He was an exceptional scholar and teacher who served as a steadying department chair during the locally and nationally tumultuous period from 1972 to 1975. He was also elected president of the Southern Sociological Society in 1972 and was inducted into its prestigious Roll of Honor in 2006. Over the course of his long and distinguished career, he gained an international reputation for his innovative research into the sociology of work and organizations. Dick’s most sustained and impressive professional activity was as editor of Social Forces for nearly a quarter century. This was the longest tenure of an editor after Howard W. Odum, the legendary founder of Social Forces (and one of Dick’s teachers), who edited the journal from 1922 to 1954. (Katharine Jocher co-edited Social Forces with Odum from 1927 to 1954 and served as editor from 1954 to 1961.)