Résumé

City Planner, City of Philadelphia, Planning Commission, Philadelphia, PA, 1944-1945.

Teaching

Meyerson's academic achievements enabled him to switch jobs frequently, and become a sought-after professor and academic administrator. The University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Record Center summarized his career: "During his early career in city planning, Meyerson’s theoretical contributions called for the integration of social science and an understanding of economic markets. An expert on national, regional, urban and industrial development, Meyerson served on numerous advisory boards, consulted internationally, and was active with various professional organizations.' (See University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Record Center.edu, "Martin Meyerson Papers, UPT 50 M613M," accessed 07/06/2023.)

Assistant Professor of the Social Sciences, University of Chicago, College and Graduate School of Social Sciences, Chicago, IL, 1948--1952. As noted by the University of Pennsylvania University Archives and Record Center: "Many of Meyerson’s ideas relating to planning came from his observing the effects of public housing projects in Chicago at this time." (See University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Record Center.edu, "Martin Meyerson Papers, UPT 50 M613M," accessed 07/06/2023.)

Associate Professor, University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Graduate School of Fine Arts, Department of City and Regional Planning, Philadelphia, PA, 1952-1956. The Penn Archives summarized this period of work: "In the early years of his career, Meyerson’s books became important contributions to establishing the theoretical foundations of urban planning in the post-World War II era. Most notably he co-authored with Edward C. Banfield, Politics, Planning and Public Interest: The Case of Public Housing In Chicago (1955) which supported the idea that physical planning had to be integrated into socio-economic planning, and the political process. While at Penn, Meyerson taught a course and developed a friendship with Lewis Mumford – whose idea of “polytechnics” closely matched Meyerson’s own ideas." (See University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Record Center.edu, "Martin Meyerson Papers, UPT 50 M613M," accessed 07/06/2023.)

Professor of City and Regional Planning, Penn, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1956-1957

Frank Backus Williams Professor of City Planning and Urban Research, Harvard University, Graduate School of Design (GSD), Cambridge, MA, 071957-1963. (See "P/A News Bulletins," Progressive Architecture, vol. 38, no. 8, 08/1957, p. 99.)

Director, MIT-Harvard Joint Center for Urban Studies, Cambridge, MA, 1959-1963.

Acting Dean, Harvard University, GSD, Cambridge, MA,1963.

Dean, College of Environmental Design (CED) and Professor of Urban Development, University of California, Berkeley (UCB), Berkeley, CA, 1964-1966. Meyerson succeeded William W. Wurster (1895-1973) as Dean of UCB's College of Environmental Design.

Acting Chancellor, UCB, Berkeley, CA, 1965.

President and Professor of Public Polilcy, State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, 1966-1970. The Penn University Archives observed of this phase of his career in Buffalo: "His arrival coincided with the challenge of a rapidly expanding State University system in an old industrial city in decline. During his tenure he oversaw the academic reorganization of the school, the planning and groundbreaking of the North Campus in Amherst, the establishment of the School of Architecture and Environmental Design, and the purchase of the Darwin D. Martin house as the home for the University President." (See University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Record Center.edu, "Martin Meyerson Papers, UPT 50 M613M," accessed 07/06/2023.)

President, University of Pennsylvania (Penn), Philadelphia, PA, 09/1970-01/1981. Meyerson was the first Jewish president of a major American university, and was called by the Chronicle of Higher Education, "“the Jackie Robinson of Jewish academia.” (See "Martin Meyerson, Leader of 3 Universities, Has Died," Chronicle of Higher Education, 06/05/2007,Accessed 06/15/2010.) Following his retirement as President, he stayed at the University of Pennsylvania as University Professor of Public-Policy Analysis and City and Regional Planning for several years.

President Emeritus, Penn, Philadelphia, PA, 1981-2007.

Professional Activities

Planning advisor, Chicago Housing Authority, Chicago, IL, c. 1950.

Planning advisor, Michael Reese Hospital, Chicago, IL, c. 1950.

Member, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, Council on Foreign Relations, New York, NY.

Member, National Academy of Education, Washington, DC.

Member, Jewish Publication Society of America, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, American School of Oriental Research (renamed the American School of Overseas Research), Alexandria, VA.

Meyerson was also active in the American Association of Universities. Washington, DC.

Co-author (with Edward C. Banfield [1916-1999]), Politics, Planning, and the Public Interest; The Case of Public Housing in Chicago, (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1955).

Author, Housing, People and Cities, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Company, Incorporated), 1962.

Author, Face of the Metropolis, (New York: Random House, 1963).

Author, Boston: The Job Ahead, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1966.).

Advisor, Centre for Environmental Studies (CES), London, England, 1967.

Chair, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Assembly on University Goals and Governance, Cambridge, MA,1969-1974.

Member, Philadelphia 1976 Bicentennial Corporation, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, Penn, Mahoney Institute of Neurological Sciences, Board of Directors, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, Penn, Lauder Institute of Management and International Studies, Board of Directors, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, Penn, Institute for Strategic Threat Analysis and Response, Board of Directors, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, Encyclopedia Britannica, Editorial Board, Chicago, IL.

Member, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Dædalus, Editorial Board, Cambridge, MA.

President, Foundation for the International Exchange of Scientific and Cultural Information by Telecommunications (FISCIT),

Chair, Penn, Fels Center of Government, Philadelphia, PA, -1996.

Co-president (with Margy Meyerson), Penn, Friends of the Library, Philadelphia, PA.

Member, Penn Library, Board of Overseers, Philadelphia, PA.

Chair, University of Pennsylvania Foundation, Philadelphia, PA.

Chair, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, PA. 1984-1997, (subsequently chair emeritus).

Chair, Institute for Research on Higher Education, Philadelphia, PA.

Chair, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA.

Chairman, Guglielmo Marconi International Fellowship Foundation, (later renamed the Marconi Foundation and Marconi Society, established in 1974).

Consultant, United Nations (UN), New York, NY. Meyerson served as a planning advisor to a number of West African countries in the 1980s.

Advisor, International Centre for the Study of East Asian Development (ICSEAD), Kitakyushu, Japan, c. 1989.

Trustee and Senior Fellow, Aspen Institute, Aspen, CO.

Member, Philadelphia Liberty Medal, selection committee, Philadelphia, PA, 1988-2005.

Co-chair, Penn’s 250th Anniversary Celebration, Philadelphia, PA, 1990.

Professional Awards

Fellow, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Cambridge, MA.

Fellow, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Washington, DC.

Fellow, Royal Society of Arts, London, England.

Fellow, American Institute of Certified Planners (AICP)

Academician, European Academy of Arts, Sciences, and Letters, Salzburg, Austria.

Academician, Académie Européenne des Sciences, des Arts et des Lettres, Paris, France. In total, Meyerson was the recipient of more than 20 honorary degrees.

The University of Pennsylvania endowed the "Martin and Margy Meyerson Professorship in Urbanisms" in 1981.

Penn named a building, "Meyerson Hall" in his honor in 1983 and renamed a section of the Penn Library's second floor the "Martin and Margy Meyerson Conference Center" in 2002.

Archives

The University of Pennsylvania, University Archives and Record Center, maintains the Martin Meyerson Papers, UPT 50 M613M

College

B.A., Columbia University, New York, NY, 1942.

Master's of City Planning, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, 1949. Meyerson was already a student at Harvard on 06/30/1942, when he filled out his World War II draft registration card. He resided in Wigglesworth Hall, C32 at the time. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards For Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 662, accessed 07/06/2023.)

Relocation

Born and raised as an only child in a Jewish-American household in Brooklyn, NY, Meyerson attended undergraduate school at Columbia University in Manhattan. He resided in Columbia University housing at Amsterdam Avenue and 11th Street according to the 1940 US Census. Meyerson graduated from Columbia in 1942. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1940; Census Place: New York, New York, New York; Roll: m-t0627-02652; Page: 3B; Enumeration District: 31-1181, accessed 07/06/2023.)

Immediately after Columbia, he enrolled at Harvard University in Cambridge, MA, to earn a Master's in City Planning. He attended Harvard by 06/30/1942, and was likely to have studies there both during and after World War II. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards For Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 662, accessed 07/06/2023.)

He moved to Philadelphia to take a job on the city's Planning Commission, just after the war in 1945. He then relocated to Chicago, IL, to teach urban planning at the University of Chicago in 1948-1949.

He taught at both Penn and Harvard (perhaps as a graduate student) before moving to Berkeley, CA, to become the second Dean of the College of Environmental Design (CED) at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB).

Leaving Berkeley, he took over as President of the State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo) from 1966-1970, before being named the President of Penn. He lived for the remainder of his life in the Philadelphia area, dying of prostate cancer on 06/02/2007.

Meyerson passed away at the Penn-Presbyterian Medical Center and was buried in the Laurel Hill Cemetery, Philadelphia, PA.

Parents

His father was Samuel Meyerson (born 12/15/1893 in Ostropol, Russia), his mother, Yetta Berger. His parents wed on 08/20/1921 in Brooklyn, NY. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation New York City Municipal Archives; New York, New York; Borough: Brooklyn, accessed 07/06/2023.)

Samuel arrived in the US on 11/21/1905 on the S.S. Noordam, a Holland-American Line vessel. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation The National Archives and Records Administration; Washington, D.C.; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at and Departing from Ogdensburg, New York, 5/27/1948 - 11/28/1972; Microfilm Serial or NAID: T715, 1897-1957, accessed 07/06/2023.) The NY Census of 1915 inidcated that Samuel lived in a neighborhood of Russian, Romanian, German and Austrian-born Jews in Brooklyn at 194 Pulaski Street ewith his parents. Unlike three of his brothers who worked in the garment trade, Samuel attended college in 1915. His father Felix was a "tailor contractor." (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation New York State Archives; Albany, New York; State Population Census Schedules, 1915; Election District: 11; Assembly District: 06; City: New York; County: Kings; Page: 38, accessed 07/06/2023.) The 1910 US Census noted that Felix worked as a tailor of pants. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation Year: 1910; Census Place: Brooklyn Ward 16, Kings, New York; Roll: T624_964; Page: 12a; Enumeration District: 0340; FHL microfilm: 1374977, accessed 07/06/2023.)

Samuel was inducted as a private in the US Army on 09/19/1917. He served in Company I of the 306th Infantry until his discharge on 05/29/1919. He did not serve overseas. (See Ancestry.com, Source Information Ancestry.com. New York, U.S., Abstracts of World War I Military Service, 1917-1919 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2013, accessed 07/06/2023.) ccording to his naturalization paperwork of 02/22/1918, Meyerson was serving at Camp Gordon, GA, on 02/22/1918.

Samuel Meyerson died before 1950. In that year, his mother Yetta worked as an elementary school teacher, and lived with her father Jacob Berger (born c. 1862 in Russia) at 1723 East 18th Street in Brooklyn. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation United States of America, Bureau of the Census; Washington, D.C.; Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790-2007; Record Group Number: 29; Residence Date: 1950; Home in 1950: New York, Kings, New York; Roll: 1769; Sheet Number: 29; Enumeration District: 24-1831, accessed 07/06/2023.)

Spouse

Martin Meyerson married Margy Ellin Meyerson.

Children

He and Margy had three children: Adam, Matthew and Laura. At his death in 2007, he had 7 grandchildren.

Biographical Notes

His World War II draft registration card of 06/30/1942 indicated that Meyerson was Caucasian with a dark complexion, brown eyes and brown hair. He stood 5-feet, 9-inches tall, and weighed 160 pounds. (See Ancestry.com, Source Citation National Archives at St. Louis; St. Louis, Missouri; Draft Registration Cards For Massachusetts, 10/16/1940-03/31/1947; Record Group: Records of the Selective Service System, 147; Box: 662, accessed 07/06/2023.)

His World War II draft card indicated that his middle initial was "D." Other sources indicated that his middle name was "Arthur." It is possible that he had two middle names.

Advisor, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA.

SSN: 326-28-8687.