Sociology legend Baltzel dies at 81

E. Digby Baltzell, one of the University's most well-known and admired professors, died August 17 at Brigham & Women's Hospital in Boston. A renowned author and sociologist, Baltzell coined the term WASP -- White Anglo-Saxon Protestant-- in his book The Protestant Establishment, published in 1964. He was a 1939 Wharton alumnus and a Sociology professor at the University for nearly 40 years. Baltzell, whose first name is Edward, continued teaching even after he officially retired in 1986. Colleagues and former students recall Baltzell as being extremely dedicated to his students and his research. "I think Digby was a sociologist of enormous stature," Sociology Professor Renee Fox said, noting that most of Baltzell's classes included "hundreds" of students. Fox said Baltzell's teachings were "not only colorful but startling, yet never disrespectful." Philadelphia resident Alan Glicksman, who received a doctorate in Sociology from the University in 1990 though he began his studies in 1978, said Baltzell was a strong influence on his current belief system and career path. "He had a real concern for undergraduates," noted Glicksman, who was a teaching assistant in some of Baltzell's undergraduate classes. "He tried to get them to think about themselves and their own lives and tried to integrate their own experience at Penn [with his class material]." Born in 1915 to an old-line Philadelphia family, Baltzell was a Philadelphian through and through, even writing a book comparing the Philadelphia upper class to that in Boston. According to Fox, though Baltzell was critical of his hometown, "nobody knew it better or loved it more." Baltzell analyzed social stratification, with a specific focus on the upper class, and believed that the WASP society refused to assimilate other ethnic groups into its ruling class. He believed Philadelphia lacked leadership because of the egalitarian beliefs of its Quaker founders. But he also placed great hope in education and strong values. After graduating from Penn in 1939, Baltzell worked as an underwriter and then as a pharmaceutical salesman. He joined the Navy in the South Pacific and served as an aviator and air combat intelligence officer during World War II. "War was the great equalizer, the melting pot," he once said. "You couldn't share the hardships, the dangers and boredom with people of all races and backgrounds and then turn around and exclude them from opportunities to which they were entitled." After his eight-year absence, Baltzell returned to the University in 1947 as an instructor and earned his doctorate five years later. He married Jane Piper in 1943, a noted artist who died in 1991. He remarried 3-1/2 years ago to Jocelyn Carlson Baltzell. During his life, Baltzell penned four books, including Philadelphia Gentlemen: The Making of a National Upper Class and Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia: Two Protestant Ethics and the Spirit of Authority and Leadership. Baltzell is survived by his wife Jocelyn, daughters Jan and Eve Baltzell, his brother William and stepdaughters Justina Carlson and Julie Carlson Groves.

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