EAST LANSING, Mich. - Dale G. Brickner, longtime professor of labor and industrial relations at Michigan State University, died Tuesday, Oct. 16. He was 73.

Brickner died of colon cancer at Hospice House in Lansing, Mich.

Brickner had been affiliated with MSU since 1973. Before his retirement in 1997, he spent 23 years as associate director of MSU's School of Labor and Industrial Relations. His emphasis on practical applications of academic expertise provided an exceptional opportunity for him to work with major players in labor relations at the state and national levels.

Born in Hopedale, Ohio, and raised in Buffalo, N.Y., Brickner earned a bachelor's degree in economics from Antioch College and did his graduate work at the University of California-Los Angeles and Cornell University.

Brickner came to MSU in 1973 as a professor of labor and industrial relations. Prior to coming to MSU, he taught economics and labor relations at Indiana University.

Brickner's interests included labor economics, government regulation of labor-management relations, collective bargaining and impasse systems, and arbitration and mediation. He developed and taught a course on the economics of the auto industry for joint labor-management training programs.

Brickner remained active in his profession in retirement and was widely contacted by the media as an analyst and commentator on a variety of labor relations-related issues.

"I can't count the times I turned to Dale for insight into the workings of the labor movement. He was very plugged in and very knowledgeable and always able to provide me with lively quotes on the latest UAW strike or Teamsters election scandal," said National Public Radio White House correspondent and MSU alumnus Don Gonyea. "But even better than that was getting to know Dale himself. He was always accessible. He always had something to contribute to a story. And he was always there, even when I called and disturbed a family dinner or a vacation. I'm lucky to have had a chance to work with him."

Brickner is survived by his wife, Carol, a retired registered nurse at the Ingham County Health Department, and his daughter, Deborah.

There will be no funeral.