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IN MEMORIAM Aaron W. Warner, professor emeritus of economics, Benjamin Buttenwieser Professor Emeritus of Human Relations, dean emeritus of the School of General Studies and former director of the University Seminars, died on August 25, 2000, in New York. He was 92. After studying music at the Damrosch Institute and later the Juilliard School in New York, Warner earned a bachelors degree in 1929 at NYU. He then attended Harvard Law School, where he studied under Benjamin F. Wright and Felix Frankfurter. A lawyer with democratic, working-class sympathies, Warner practiced in Boston for four years, where he earned praise for his defense of Harvard students protesting the early uncontested rise of Nazism. He also received attention for his stand against communist-baiting precursors of Joseph McCarthy, who accused Warner of being a communist in the 1930s. In 1937, Warner joined FDR's New Deal administration, becoming one of the youngest regional administrators of the National Labor Relations Board. Initially based in Denver, Warner later held the same post in Los Angeles before being appointed special examiner for regional offices throughout the country. He enlisted in the Navy in 1943 and served in the Pacific theater, where he participated in the liberation of islands off the Japanese coast. After World War II, Warner began his more-than-50-year association with Columbia. Originally a lecturer at the University, he earned both his Ph.D. in economics and tenure in 1954. Warner devoted himself over the following decades to the study of labor-management relations, workman's compensation, salary structure in U.S. companies and industrial organization. He became a full professor in 1961 and chairman of the economics department. He was named the Joseph Buttenwieser Professor of Human Relations in 1967 and spent a year in Geneva working with the International Labor Office. He also helped frame the University's response to the 1968 student demonstrations, and in 1969 he was chosen as dean of the School of General Studies. He retired as professor and dean emeritus in 1976 and received the University's Owl Award for distinguished service. At age 68, he became dean of Continuing Education and director of the University Seminars, a post he gave up only earlier this year. He had founded the University Seminar on technology and social change in 1962, and in 1983 he founded another on philanthropy. In addition, Warner assisted the University of North Carolina and George Washington University in establishing university seminars programs of their own. His first wife, Charlotte Rosen, died in 1970. Warner is survived by his second wife of 29 years, the former Miriam Firestone; two daughters, Rachel Warner of Washington, D.C. and Abby Myerson of Los Angeles; and a sister, Miriam Rosen of Maplewood, N.J. A memorial service was held at St. Paul's Chapel on October 12, 2000.
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