ALLAN GUNNAR FELDT, Professor Ememritus

Taubman College of Architeccutre and Urban Planning

Allan Gunnar Feldt was the youngest of five children born to Gunnar and Alma (Ahnberg) Feldt who had emigrated to the United States in 1902 and 1908, respectively. Born and raised in Tonawanda, NY, he moved to Ann Arbor in 1950 to attend the University of Michghian under an NROTC scholarship. He was medically discharged from the NROTC just before graduation and was drafted into othe US Armyu seven months later. That same year, he married his High School sweetheart, Barbara McVittie.

He served two years as a radio operator and returned to Ann Arbor to begin graduate school in Sociology in 1957. Their first two children, David Allan and Linda Diane were born in Ann Arbor while Allan was in graduate school. He received his Ph.D. Degree early in 1963 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Sociology and of City and Regional Planning at Cornell University in 1962.

Their third child, Laurie Karen, was born shortly after they arrived in Ithaca.  While at Cornell, Feldt became active in local politics and served four years on the thaca Planning Board before being elected Seventh Ward Alderman and serving almost four years on the ithaca Common Council.

He accepted an appointment as Associate Professor of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Michigan in 1962 and the family returned to Ann Arbor that year. His faculty apointment was in the School of Natural Resources where the interdiscipinary Ph.D. Program in Urban and Regional Planning was located at that time. When the program shifted to the College of Architecture and Urban Planning several years later, Feldt received an appointment as Professor Urban Planning in that College as well.

While at Michigan, Feldt served a term as Chairman of the Ph.D. Prgoram in Urban and Regional Planning and later as Chairman of the Master's Degree program in Urban Planning. He also served on a number of committees both in the College of Architecture and University wide, including four years on the Rackham Graduate School Exectutive Committee and four years on the Board of Diriectors of the Univeirsity Cellar Bookstore. He also served four years on the Ann Arbor Planning Commission. Although Feldt published a few dozen scholarly articles and book chapters, he is best known for his pioneering work in in Simulation /Gaming well before the developent of computer games. Among the half dozen games he developed dealing with planning and environamental issues he is best kinown as original desinger of CLUG, the Community Land Use Game, which has been widely used and emulated in this country and abroad.

Feldt started early retirement due to his wife's failinlg health with a half time appointment in 1989 ending in full retirement in 1994, a year after his wife's death. A year later he and Kathryn West, a secretary in the Law School, began sharing their lives together. Since retirement, he has been an active volunteer in a variety of senior support organizations including Neighborhood Senior Services and the Turner Senior Resources Center. His most recent publication is “Adapting to Hearing Loss”, a guide for late deafened adults.