George F. Rohrlich Collection

Georg Rohrlich was born into a middle-class Jewish family in Vienna, Austria, on January 6, 1914. He attended a modern Gymnasium (1924-32) and earned a doctorate in jurisprudence at the University of Vienna (1937). He emigrated to the United States in September 1938. In autumn 1939, he was accepted into Harvard University's newly-established scholarship program for refugees, the Harvard Refugee Scholar program. He earned a doctorate in political economy and government in 1943. and became an American citizen in June 1944.

Rohrlich's career as a social welfare administrator began in 1947, when he served as a civilian economist for the Allied Powers in Tokyo and helped to re-establish Japan's social security system. After his return to the United States, he worked for the Social Security Administration (1950-53) and for the Department of Labor (1953-59). He then took a post with the International Labor Organization, an agency of the United Nations, and administered a training program for social security officials from underdeveloped nations (1959-64).

Rohrlich re-entered the academic world in 1964. After three years at the University of Chicago's School of Social Science Administration (1964-67), he moved to Temple University's School of Business Administration, where he remained until his retirement in 1981.

Between 1989 and 1991, Rohrlich helped to organize a fiftieth reunion of the Harvard Refugee Scholars (June 1990) and wrote a short history of the program.

He died on August 21, 1995.