James Bertram Haugh grew up on a working class dairy farm in Indiana. In high school, he was elected president of the Future Farmers of America and of his senior class. Upon graduation, he enrolled at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wisconsin. After holding several odd labor jobs, he knew that he wanted more in life. This inspired him to achieve better academically. He attempted seminary twice, drove a Chicago Transit Authority bus for a year, and worked for I.B.M. for 6 1/2 years. Later, he began a degree in Urban Studies at Loyola, and worked toward certification in secondary education in 1970. In 1973, James Haugh began teaching in the Sociology department of Old Dominion University, and continued his studies there. At this time, he became increasingly interested in economic, community, political, and labor organization, migrant labor, social change from the standpoint of the powerless, and hunger and malnutrition. In 1974, he became involved in a hunger organization called C.R.O.P. at a conference on hunger in Richmond. Haugh was eventually asked to serve as executive director of the organization. It was these experiences, the connections he made through them, and his desire to learn what is needed to effect positive social change that led him to do his dissertation on power and influence in the Public Voluntary Not for Profit Sector. This study was carried out largely through a series of interviews with notable public figures in a place called "Colonial City" in 1977 and 1978. "Colonial City" is actually Norfolk, Virginia, and the people interviewed are given aliases in his study. Haugh posed these people with questions about the qualities possessed by effective leaders, what it is to be a "Virginian", how things get done, and what could make or break a project in the community. The results of his study are written into a book called Power and Influence in a Colonial City. His dissertation complete, James Bertram Haugh received his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Akron, Ohio, in the fall of 1978.

Note written by Special Collections Staff