Born July 5, 1914, in Placerville, California, John Thomas Dunlop obtained his B.A. and Ph.

D. from the University of California before becoming a professor at Harvard University in 1938. During World War II, Dunlop was on the National War Labor Board and consulted with the Office of Economic Stabilization and the Office of War Mobilization and Reconversion.

After the war, Dunlop returned to Harvard, becoming head of the Department of Economics (1961-1966) and dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (1970-1973). He served as chairman of the National Commission on Productivity (1970-1975) and chairman of the Construction Industry Stabilization Committee (1971-1973). He was also director of President Richard Nixon's Cost of Wage Council (1973-1974).President Gerald Ford appointed him Secretary of Labor on March 3, 1975, and Dunlop served in that capacity until resigning on January 31, 1976, in a dispute over Ford's veto of a labor relations bill. He later served President Bill Clinton as chairman of the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations (1993-1995). Dunlop returned to Harvard following his time in government, rising to become Lamont University Professor, Emeritus. He died on October 3, 2003.