Philip Elliot Slater (May 15, 1927 – June 20, 2013) was an American sociologist and

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

. He was the author of the bestselling 1970 book on American culture, ''The Pursuit of Loneliness'' (1970) and of numerous other books and articles. He had an A.B. and Ph.D. from Harvard and taught sociology at

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

Brandeis Brandeis is a surname. People *Antonietta Brandeis (1848–1926), Czech-born Italian painter *Brandeis Marshall, American data scientist *Friedl Dicker-Brandeis, Austrian artist and Holocaust victim *Irma Brandeis, American Dante scholar *Louis B ...

, and

University of California at Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of California system. Located on Monterey Bay, on the edge of ...

. He was Professor and Chairperson of the Brandeis Sociology Department in 1971 when he resigned to found, with Jacqueline Doyle and Morrie Schwartz, Greenhouse, a non-profit growth center, where he led encounter groups and personal growth workshops. He was a merchant seaman, actor, business consultant, cookie salesman, marriage officiant, and president of a theatre. He collaborated with filmmaker Gene Searchinger on ''Paradox on 72nd Street'', a one-hour TV documentary aired nationally by

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

, and acted in over 30 plays and films. In 1982, he was chosen by ''

Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...

'' magazine as one of its "male heroes". Slater taught writing and playwriting at UCSC and in private workshops starting 1989. He returned to academia in his eighties, teaching in the doctoral program in Transformative Studies at the California Institute for Integral Studies. Besides the influential 1970 bestseller ''The Pursuit of Loneliness'', Slater was the author of nine other books of sociology and social commentary. He wrote more than 25 novels and plays. In a prescient 1964 ''Harvard Business Review'' article called, "Democracy is Inevitable," he and co-author

Warren Bennis Warren Gamaliel Bennis (March 8, 1925 – July 31, 2014) was an American scholar, organizational consultant and author, widely regarded as a pioneer of the contemporary field of Leadership studies.Riverton, New Jersey Riverton is a borough located in Burlington County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 United States Census, the borough had a total population of 2,779,United States Merchant Marine United States Merchant Marines are United States civilian mariners and U.S. civilian and federally owned merchant vessels. Both the civilian mariners and the merchant vessels are managed by a combination of the government and private sectors, an ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. He died of cancer in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz (Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a pop ...

at 86.

References

External links

Official site
at philipslater.org (original philipslater.com no longer available)
Writings at The Huffington Post

"The World According to Slater"
an article at the

Harvard Magazine ''Harvard Magazine'' is an independently edited magazine and separately incorporated affiliate of Harvard University. Aside from ''The Harvard Crimson'', it is the only publication covering the entire university, and also regularly distributed ...

Harvard Magazine
* Wallace Baine
"An unconventional man: Harvard-educated sociologist Philip Slater came to Santa Cruz in pursuit of happiness"
at the

Santa Cruz Sentinel The ''Santa Cruz Sentinel'' is a daily newspaper published in Santa Cruz, California, covering Santa Cruz County, California, and owned by Media News Group. Ottaway Community Newspapers, a division of Dow Jones & Company bought the paper in 1982 ...

Amazon.com: Philip Slater: Books

CS Pakarbet
{{DEFAULTSORT:Slater, Philip 1927 births 2013 deaths People from Riverton, New Jersey Harvard University alumni Harvard University staff Brandeis University faculty University of California, Santa Cruz people American male stage actors United States Merchant Mariners of World War II Deaths from cancer in California Deaths from lymphoma