Julian Wolpert, the Henry G. Bryant Professor of Geography, Public Affairs, and Urban Planning, Emeritus, died at Morristown Medical Center in Morristown, New Jersey, on Aug. 22. He was 92.

Wolpert, who joined Princeton’s faculty in 1973 and transferred to emeritus status in 2005, championed and helped pioneer the use of quantitative approaches to understand the social and behavioral dimensions of geography. His research interests included location theory and migration, planning and urban development, philanthropy and environmental policy.

Mark Alan Hughes, a retired professor of practice in regional planning and energy policy at the University of Pennsylvania's Stuart Weitzman School of Design and director emeritus of its Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, said Wolpert "pried open a space for theories of decision-making behavior that conquered the field of geography."

"Acknowledging the status quo that people move in patterns influenced by physical landscapes, Julian demonstrated that human migration was more fundamentally behavior-based," said Hughes, who worked with Wolpert from 1986 to 1992 as an assistant professor at what is now the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA). "That theoretical frame and the quantitative methods used to observe and test it made Julian a permanent giant in geography."

"Julian was super-bright, technically brilliant, sweet and generous," said Stanley Katz, a lecturer with the rank of professor in public and international affairs at Princeton SPIA who joined the University in 1978 and worked alongside Wolpert until the latter's retirement. “He was an economic geographer and quite sophisticated in quantitative methodology. He was quiet, intellectually sophisticated and broad-based.”

He noted that the two bonded over their shared "commitment to the Jewish community on campus" and their eventual overlap in subject matter. Katz, an expert in American philanthropy, credited Wolpert’s late wife, Eileen, who worked at organizations including what is now the UJA-Federation of New York, with inspiring Wolpert’s interests in the nonprofit sector. Throughout their time together at Princeton SPIA, Katz described Wolpert as "enormously helpful" and "one of the colleagues I most trusted and relied upon."

Wolpert taught at the School of Architecture and Urban Planning, now the School of Architecture, when he first arrived at Princeton before becoming jointly appointed in 1977 with the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, now Princeton SPIA. In 1980, he moved permanently to the policy school. He directed its undergraduate program at least four times, most recently in 1998, and its master's in public policy program from 1999 to 2002.

In 1979, he developed the Program in Urban and Regional Planning with School of Architecture lecturer Robert Gutman, which led to a joint degree known as a master's in public affairs and urban and regional planning. Wolpert chaired the program until his retirement. He also served as president of Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life.

Hughes recalled that while he learned endlessly from Wolpert as a mentor, what he remembers most after decades is his playful nature.

“In both public and private settings, he was almost always a scamp who routinely ended or redirected discussions with a vague witticism that people often deferred to before they fully understood it,” Hughes said. “Julian had a twinkle in his eye that could mean many things. It could signify disregard for the last thing you said, a pause for you to comprehend the last thing he had said, or a challenge to join him in the action he'd just proposed. The twinkle was often cast as Julian lit his pipe.”

"I will always miss that twinkle through a thin puff of smoke while I tried to figure out what Julian was up to,” Hughes added.

David Kinsey, who earned his master of public affairs and urban planning from Princeton SPIA in 1971 and his Ph.D. in 1975, said Wolpert launched his academic career when he asked him to teach his introduction to planning graduate seminar while on leave.

“Thanks to his generosity and confidence in me then, I have now taught part-time at SPIA for 27 years,” said Kinsey, a partner at Kinsey & Hand Planning in Princeton. “Julian valued planning as an important part of the SPIA graduate program.”

An officer and a scholar

Wolpert was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1932. After graduating from Columbia University in 1953, he earned his master’s in 1954 and his Ph.D. in 1963, both at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. In between his graduate degrees, Wolpert served in the U.S. Navy from 1956 to 1959 and studied at Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. Before he was appointed a professor at Princeton, he had taught at the University of Pennsylvania for a decade.

He and his late wife, Eileen — later referred to by her Hebrew name, Esther — met at the Brooklyn Jewish Center, attended Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn together and married in 1955. They were together for 61 years until her death in 2016.

Wolpert’s early work in spatial analysis and locational decision-making redefined the discipline as a data-driven social science that paved the way for his scholarship on the patterns of regional generosity and the provision of nonprofit services.

Wolpert published more than 100 journal articles, reports and books in publications including the Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Economic Geography, Geographical Analysis, Papers in Regional Science, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, the Journal of Social Issues and Public Opinion Quarterly.

In 1964, he authored two highly influential papers, "The Decision Process in Spatial Context," which was reprinted and translated into 13 edited books, and the widely reprinted "Behavioral Aspects of the Decision to Migrate," published in the Annals of the Association of American Geographers and Papers in Regional Science, respectively.

While at Princeton in 1978, Wolpert released another major study analyzing the effects of siting group homes for disabled individuals in residential neighborhoods. He compared communities across New York State and found that property values did not decline due to the presence of such facilities, nor did they encourage residents to move away from them.

In his best-known book, "Patterns of Generosity in America: Who's Holding the Safety Net?" (1994), Wolpert examined how the decentralization of federal "safety net" programs established regional variations in charitable giving and volunteerism.

His other works included “New York City's Nonprofit Sector” (2002), a monograph co-authored with John Seley, professor emeritus of earth and environmental sciences and psychology at CUNY Graduate Center, and "Metropolitan Neighborhoods: Participation and Conflict Over Change" (1972), among others.

“My first and most important mentor”

Wolpert's granddaughter, Ida Narli, is a senior at Princeton majoring in the history of science. She recalled the first time her grandfather took her on a tour of campus at age 16, pointing out his old office at Princeton SPIA and taking her to the Princeton University Art Museum. 

“He introduced me to the curator as a future Princeton student and led me into a corridor filled with stained glass,” she said. “He then shared with me that this was a special spot for him and my grandmother to meet in between classes or for date nights.”

Narli said that Wolpert "became a long-term mentor for countless students" and for her as well. “I considered him my first and most important mentor — along with being one of my best friends and grandfather, of course.”

“His unassuming confidence was one I always aspired to emulate. Whenever imposter syndrome kicks in, I hear his voice — telling me either to have better posture or shut down any thoughts of self-doubt,” Narli said. 

At Princeton, Wolpert taught courses including “Geography and Public Affairs” and “The American City,” as well as the graduate seminars “Planning Theory and Process,” “Urban Metropolitan Development” and “Policy Issues and Analysis of Non-Profits, NGOs and Philanthropy,” the latter of which he developed.

“I have many treasured memories of my time working with Julian at Princeton,” said Jennifer Wolch, distinguished professor emerita in city and regional planning and dean emerita of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California-Berkeley, who earned her Ph.D. at Princeton in 1978 advised by Wolpert. 

“From start to finish, Julian's work inspired my own,” Wolch said. “I’m deeply grateful to have been able to learn from Julian as a student and be guided by his intellectual and ethical values throughout my own academic life.”

Wolpert’s many honors include Guggenheim, Russell Sage Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences fellowships. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1977, Wolpert was also a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Institute of Certified Planners.

From 1979 to 1982, he served as chairman of the National Research Council’s Assembly of Behavioral and Social Sciences. In 1979, he received the Association of American Geographers Honors Award for outstanding contributions to the field of geography, having previously served as the organization's president and vice president.

Throughout his career, Wolpert advised and worked with numerous federal agencies, including the National Science Foundation, the National Institute of Mental Health, the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. State Department, as well as think tanks and research organizations such as The Century Foundation and The Aspen Institute.

He sat on advisory committees and review panels at the National Institute of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation, including the latter's Social Science Advisory Committee from 1992 to 1996, and on governing boards at the Consortium of Social Science Associations and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 1995, Wolpert also testified before Congress about the danger of budget cuts to government social programs and advocated for greater funding of evidence-based social science research at a House panel on reauthorizing the National Science Foundation.

Wolpert is predeceased by his wife, Eileen. He is survived by his four children and their spouses, Seth and Jackie Wolpert, Jesse and Sherie Wolpert, Josh and Sarah Wolpert, and Rebekah Narli; eight grandchildren, Geoffrey (wife Mikayla), David, Jake (wife Lauren), Sam, Ben, Isabelle, Lily and Ida; and four great-grandchildren, Dean, Aurora, Ellie and Isaac.

Donations in Wolpert’s honor may be made to Princeton’s Center for Jewish Life and Scharf Family Chabad House or to the B'nai Jeshurun synagogue in New York City.

View or share comments on a memorial page intended to honor Wolpert’s life and legacy.