Theodore Glocker received the PhD from Johns Hopkins in 1907 in social work and economics. He was an instructor in political economy at Johns Hopkins in 1907-08 and became an assistant in the Research Department of the School of Social Work in Boston, which was affiliated with Harvard. From 1909 to 1912, he served as head of the Research Department. In 1912–13 he was acting associate professor of sociology at Washington University, St. Louis, and associate director of the St. Louis School of Social Economy. He joined the UT faculty in 1913. He served on and chaired the University Debating Council and was a member of the Knoxville Social Service Council, Reform League, and Decisions Committee of the Associated Charities, as well as working for the Hunter Settlement House.
When the board of trustees approved creation of a School of Commerce to begin operation in fall 1914, economist Theodore Glocker became its head. He was responsible for expanding the curriculum of the school into accounting and marketing. In 1936 he established the Bureau of Business Research. When the school was separated from the College of Liberal Arts (now Arts and Sciences) and became the School of Business Administration in 1938, Glocker was instrumental in effecting the transition.
Professor Glocker received substantial notoriety in 1929 and 1930 for one economic assessment. In the spring of 1929, he averred that “unless business becomes much more speculative as a whole . . . there should be no reaction in 1930. Business today has a firm conservative foundation.” He was the author of the Government of American Trade Unions and many scholarly articles.
The first building devoted to instruction in business administration was named for him, and a wing of the expanded building (James A. Haslam II Business Building) commemorates his service to UT.