Milton M. Gordon was born in Mardiner, Maine, on October 3, 1918. He completed his undergraduate studies at Bowdoin College in 1939 and received his master's and doctorate degrees in sociology from Columbia University in 1940 and 1950, respectively. From 1946-1950, concurrent with his graduate studies, he served as an instructor of sociology at the University of Pennsylvania. He taught at Drew University from 1950-1953 and at Haverford College from 1953-1957. After spending two academic years as a visiting associate professor at Wellesley College, he became a professor of sociology at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, where he stayed the remainder of his teaching career. He was awarded the status of professor emeritus in 1986.

Gordon, who wrote numerous books and scholarly articles on the issues of ethnicity, assimilation, and social stratification, published his first major work Social Class in American Sociology in 1958, an analysis of research conducted on the problems caused by...