Rupert Bayless Vance
March 15, 1899 – August 25, 1975
Rupert B. Vance served at the 34th President of the American Sociological Society (name later changed to Association). His Presidential Address, “Toward Social Dynamics,” was delivered at the organization’s annual meeting in Chicago in December 1944.
Upon his death, Vance’s papers were donated to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for preservation. A finding aid to the Vance papers is available online. The UNC Archives provides the following biographical sketch of Rupert Vance:
Rupert Bayless Vance was born in 1899 in Plummerville, Arkansas. He received a masters degree in economics from Vanderbilt University, then, in 1926, joined the faculty of the Sociology Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He remained at Chapel Hill for forty years, playing a leading role in the introduction of the sociological study of the South.
Vance was a prolific writer, publishing seven books and hundreds of articles. Through his writings, teaching, and public appearances, he made it clear that he was not only interested in the analysis of social problems. Following the lead of his mentor Howard W. Odum, Vance often went beyond analysis, daring to suggest solutions and urging the South to embrace economic, political, and social progress. Vance’s approaches to his work evolved along with the discipline of sociology, and, in the 1950s and 1960s, he concentrated on new statistical methods and demography.
Vance’s interests and activities ranged beyond sociology. He served, for example, on the governing board of the University of North Carolina Press and was active in community work. Rupert Vance died on 25 August 1975.
For additional information see sketches of Vance by Edgar T. Thompson in The Encyclopedia of Southern History by Elizabeth McGehee in Encyclopedia of Southern Culture (1989).
Obituary
Written by Katherine Jocher, published in Footnotes, November 1975
Rupert Bayless Vance, former president of the American Sociological Association (1944} and of the Population Association of America (1952), died on August 25, 1975, in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, after a very brief illness. He was associated with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1926 until his retirement in 1969, at which time he was Kenan Professor of Sociology and co-editor of Social Forces. He was internationally known as sociologist, demographer, historian, and human geographer. He is survived by his wife, the former Rheba Usher and three sons, David, Donald, and Victor.
Born in Plumerville, Arkansas, on March 15, 1889, Vance held degrees from Henderson-Brown College, Vanderbilt University, and the University of North Carolina. His last public appearance at a university function was on the occasion of being awarded an honorary degree by the University of North Carolina in May, 1975. He also had been awarded honorary degrees from Hendrix College and the University of Arkansas.
At age four Vance had polio which left him paralyzed and unable to walk. He, however, insisted on his independence and was mobile with braces, crutches, and a specially equipped car. His becoming a distinguished scholar was probably a partial consequence of his physical problems and the necessity to concentrate on mental rather than physical activity. The breadth and depth of his knowledge, and reading is exemplified in a statement by the late Howard Odum, also a former president of the American Sociological Association “When Vance took his Ph.D., he could have passed his doctoral examinations easily in any one of the social sciences.”
Vance was not only an outstanding scholar but an unusually able writer whose flowing style made complex ideas seem simple. Students listened closely in Vance’s lectures, because they were punctuated with dry witticisms so casually woven into the lecture that the careless listener frequently mixed them. His writing also reflected his keen sense of humor.
Vance may be best known for his volume All These People, a powerful demographic analysis of the Southern population with policy implications clearly spelled out. On the basis of this volume, he received the lord and Taylor “American Design for living” award in 1951. In 1933 he had received the Mayflower Award for his volume The Human Geography of the South. His monograph Research Memorandum on Population Redistribution in the United States, published by the Social Science Research Council, 1938, is still a standard reference work for demographers, pointing out areas of research that have still not been carefully explored.
Less known but equally noteworthy is a series of historical articles on Southern demagogues, beginning with “A Karl Marx for Hill Billies: Portrait of a Southern Leader'” (Social Forces, December, 1930). I asked him why he didn’t put these articles together into a volume on Southern demagogues, and his reply was, “Everytime I start to do that, a new demagogue appears on the scene “
Other well-known books are Human Factors in Cotton Culture 1929, New Farms for Old, Rural Public Housing in the South, with Gordon Blackwell (1946), Exploring the South with John E. Ivey, Jr , and Marjorie Bond (1949), and The Urban South, edited with N. J. Demerath (1954). He was also author of a large number of articles and book reviews.
As President of the American Sociological Association it is interesting that he represent’> the “medianth president” of the Association. From Lester f. Ward through George Lundberg there were 33 presidents before Vance, and Alfred McLung lee is the 33d president since Vance. His lifetime spanned the history of the American Sociological Association, and his “medianth position”‘ is symbolic of the centrality and fundamental nature of his work in sociology. He was a model of the sociologist whose writings were scientifically sound and policy relevant.
To his students, Rupert Vance was the ideal type researcher, teacher, sociologist par excellence. In the words of Vance’s favorite humorist, George Gobel, ‘You don’t hardly find that kind no more.”
