5 RAPS SHEET n OCTOBER 2022 In memoriam: Arthur Emlen, 1927-2022 ARTHUR COPE EMLEN, JR., professor emeritus of social work and the founding director of the Regional Research Institute for Human Services at Portland State, died September 3 in Portland. He was 95 years old. Art was born August 11, 1927, in Aubury, Pennsylvania, to parents Arthur and Marie Emlen. He spent his early years with his three sisters, Sally, Ellie, and Marie, on a spacious family compound near Philadelphia. His first jobs were doing office work for the Provident Trust Company, trimming trees, and helping repair houses of the poor. Art graduated from Germantown Friends School in the class of 1945. Since the U.S. was engaged in World War II, Art was called up to do relief work with the American Friends Service Committee, transported horses to European farms, and helped arrange for repair of damaged homes. After the war, Art enrolled in UCLA, and got a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, which sparked his respect for empirical research. For the next two years Art directed an international group of volunteers who assisted with a land-reform project in El Salvador through the American Friends Service Committee, helping campesino families who earned new homes through working in fields. He returned to UCLA in 1956 and embarked on a twoyear master of social work program. He worked in rural child welfare placements and jobs where he met Charlene Gilmour (Bitsy) whom he married before they moved to New Orleans. Art earned a Ph.D. in social welfare from Tulane University in 1964, and the Emlens relocated to Portland, where Art accepted an associate professor position to teach research methods and child welfare practice in the School of Social Work at Portland State University. In 1973, the Regional Research Institute for Human Services was established with Art as its founding director, which he directed until his retirement in 1989. Art’s RRI research was groundbreaking in a number of areas: neighborhood family day care, permanency planning for children in foster care, the ways employed parents arranged to have their children cared for while they were at work, and family support investments. In 1987 PSU honored Art with the Branford Price Millar Award for his outstanding research on the relationship between work, family, and childcare. He also was recognized in 1987 for his “pioneering work in permanency planning… for all children who receive public child welfare services” by the Secretary of Health and Human Services Commemorative Award. Art continued his scholarship after retirement, and received the RAPS Outstanding Retired Faculty Award in 1995 and 2019 for his continuing service and scholarship, including the 2010 publication of his influential book Solving the Childcare and Flexibility Puzzle. Art passed away with family by his side. He is survived by his wife, Charlene, and their daughter, Lisa, and her husband, Robert Takahashi, parents of granddaughter Abby; their son, Andrew, and his wife, Audrey, parents of grandsons Riley and Conner; and their daughter-in-law Elana, who was married to their son, Matt Emlen, who died in 2019, parents of grandchildren Ariella, Estee, and Tali. —Eileen Brennan, Professor Emerita of Social Work PSU Digital Archives Gallery 1987 Upcoming RAPS events. NOVEMBER Thursday, November 17 A presentation by Nicholas Kristof, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and general manager of Kristof Family Farms in Yamhill, Oregon, on the challenges facing Oregon and his vision for addressing them. In-person or Zoom to be determined. DECEMBER Thursday, December 8 Annual Holiday Party, Augustana Lutheran Church in Northeast Portland. JANUARY Thursday, January 19 William Comer, professor of Russian and director of PSU’s Russian Flagship Program, speaking on the Russia-Ukraine War. In-person or Zoom to be determined.
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