By Liz Coffin-KarlinThe Daily Northwestern

A longtime professor who founded Northwestern’s Mathematical Methods in the Social Sciences program died Dec. 23.

Michael Dacey, senior associate dean of Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, died in Evanston Hospital after a brief illness; he was 74.

Dacey began the MMSS program, a selective major designed to help mathematically inclined students succeed in the social sciences, in 1978. He taught in the program until Fall Quarter.

The program was a response to the national lack of undergraduate options for students who excel in quantitative reasoning but do not want to pursue a career in the physical sciences.

The program requires a dual track of advanced mathematics courses and a social science major, with the math courses crafted specifically for the MMSS students.

Bill Rodgerson, current director of the MMSS program, said the major offers a “home for those with high analytical needs.”

Rodgerson worked with Dacey as associate dean and an instructor for the MMSS program since Rodgerson came to Northwestern 20 years ago.

“He was a wonderful man, and he cared deeply about the program,” Rodgerson said. “It will be harder to go on without him.”

Dacey was known for his personal involvement with the MMSS students. He and his wife, Jeanette, hosted yearly parties at their home for incoming and graduating students. Dacey taught in the MMSS program from its inception through last quarter.

“You think of MMSS, and you think of him,” said political science Prof. James Druckman, a 1993 graduate of the program.

Dacey is remembered as a man who was deeply involved with his students. Weinberg Dean Daniel Linzer described him as “extremely dedicated” to the MMSS program.

“He would push beyond the classroom experience … to make (the students’) time here really resonate,” Linzer said.

Druckman remembered that when he was a student at NU, Dacey was extremely accessible. He recalled an instance when he and his friends needed help with a problem set and tracked down Dacey at Burger King. Dacey willingly answered their questions.

“He went beyond what other professors would ever do … educating and mentoring,” Druckman said.

Dacey supervised the senior honors thesis seminar, putting him in close contact with all graduating MMSS students.

“I can’t think of one person who influenced more undergraduates and more undergraduates who owed their careers to one person,” Druckman said.

Until three years ago, Dacey also taught a course for freshmen in the MMSS program.

During his time at NU, Dacey also taught for the anthropology and geological sciences departments, and he was chairman of the geography department from 1976 to 1982. He won a Distinguished Teaching Award in 1981. He became an associate dean in 1987 and was appointed senior associate dean in 1993.

Linzer said Dacey was an extremely effective administrator because of his ability to “constantly think about the big picture.”

Dacey used mathematical models to solve administrative problems, he said.

“He was terrific at making models to figure out what to do and make good decisions,” Linzer said. “That’s what administration is about.”

Reach Liz Coffin-Karlin at [email protected].