John Royston "Jack" Coleman (June 24, 1921 – September 6, 2016) was a labor economist, college and foundation president, television host, and author of Blue-Collar Journal.
[1] Coleman served on active duty in the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve in World War II, rising to the rank of commander.
from 1949 to 1955 and at Carnegie Mellon University from 1955 to 1965, serving as Dean of the Division of Humanities and Social Sciences at the latter institution for the final two years of his time there.
From 1977 to 1986 he was president of the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, after which he ran a country inn in Chester, Vermont, and was actively involved in local arts and education.
[5] During his time at Haverford, Coleman took a sabbatical in which he put his academic work to the test by working a variety of blue-collar jobs, including ditch-digger, garbageman, prison warden (and inmate), and "salad-and-sandwich man" at Union Oyster House.
[6] It was made into the 1976 television movie The Secret Life of John Chapman, starring Ralph Waite, Susan Anspach and Brad Davis.