Robert Frase

Biography

Robert W. Frase (1912-2003) was born in Chicago. He was a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of the University of Wisconsin and received a master's degree in political economy from Harvard University. In 1935, he began working in Washington, D.C. as an intern at the Social Security Board. Frase went on to work for the Labor Department's Wage and Hour, the Agriculture Department's land use office, the War Relocation Authority and the Commerce Department, where he was social science analyst and special assistant for the office of program planning. He served in the Army Air Forces during World War II.

In 1946, Robert Frase headed the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration team to Byelorussia. He received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1948 to study control of atomic energy.

Frase was chief economist and vice president of the American Association of Publishers. After he retired from the association in 1972, he became chair of the National Commission of New Technology Uses. From 1978 to 1982, he served as Executive Director of the American National Standards Committee, Z39, responsible for the standards in the field of libraries and publishing.

Larson Collection interview

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Interview, segment 1

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