Emery T. Filbey was a long-time educator and administrative member of the University of Chicago. He was Dean of the College from 1923-27, Director of the Institute of Meat Packing from 1924-30, Director of Personnel and Alumni Relations from 1926-27, Professor of Commerce and Business Administration from 1927-30, Assistant to the President from 1930-33, Dean of the Faculties from 1933-37, and Vice-President and Dean of the Faculties from 1937-1944. His interim at the Oriental Institute occurred in 1962, when he served as the Acting Director long after his retirement from the University.

Born on December 23, 1878 in Cambridge City, Indiana, he began an early career in education by teaching at rural school after graduating from the eighth grade. He went on to pursue a career in education at the Indiana State Normal School. He taught in Indiana for nearly eight years before coming to the University of Chicago in 1909. That same year he married Lena Leora Chance. Between 1909 and in 1917 he pursued his Ph.B. while simultaneously heading the Department of industrial arts at the University of Chicago Laboratory School. In 1919 he was made an assistant professor at the University of Chicago and received his masters degree in 1920.

After his retirement in 1944, Filbey served as Acting Dean of the Division of Social Sciences in 1954, and Acting Dean of the Federated Theological Seminary in 1955.

Biographical note adapted from the University of Chicago Library Special Collections.