Since 1952, Cornell University Prof. Emeritus John W. Reps has taught, studied, and written about the planning of cities, suburbs, and farms. The American Planning Association has recognized him as a planning pioneer. He is perhaps the first scholar to recognize that the best way to understand planning’s future is to study planning’s past. In 1964, Professor Reps delivered the Pomeroy Memorial Lecture at the American Society of Planning Officials’ annual conference. With the benefit of 50 years’ hindsight, this Comment considers the prescience of Professor Reps’ observations and predictions.