diff --git a/orte/orted/Makefile.am b/orte/orted/Makefile.am
index f4f87665f57..1235e51e69b 100644
--- a/orte/orted/Makefile.am
+++ b/orte/orted/Makefile.am
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 #                         All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2014      Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2015      Intel, Inc. All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2018      IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -29,7 +30,17 @@ headers += \
 
 lib@ORTE_LIB_PREFIX@open_rte_la_SOURCES += \
         orted/orted_main.c \
-        orted/orted_comm.c \
-        orted/orted_submit.c
+        orted/orted_comm.c
+
+# The MPIR portion of the library must be built with -g, even if
+# the rest of the library has other optimization flags.
+# Use an intermediate library to isolate the debug object.
+noinst_LTLIBRARIES += liborted_mpir.la
+liborted_mpir_la_SOURCES = \
+	orted/orted_submit.c
+liborted_mpir_la_CFLAGS = $(CFLAGS_WITHOUT_OPTFLAGS) $(DEBUGGER_CFLAGS)
+
+lib@ORTE_LIB_PREFIX@open_rte_la_LIBADD += liborted_mpir.la
+
 
 include orted/pmix/Makefile.am
diff --git a/orte/tools/orterun/Makefile.am b/orte/tools/orterun/Makefile.am
index 8e2e40c92a5..790c00b5243 100644
--- a/orte/tools/orterun/Makefile.am
+++ b/orte/tools/orterun/Makefile.am
@@ -12,6 +12,7 @@
 # Copyright (c) 2008-2014 Cisco Systems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2008      Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
 # Copyright (c) 2015      Intel, Inc.  All rights reserved.
+# Copyright (c) 2018      IBM Corporation.  All rights reserved.
 # $COPYRIGHT$
 #
 # Additional copyrights may follow
@@ -19,15 +20,6 @@
 # $HEADER$
 #
 
-# This is not quite in the Automake spirit, but we have to do it.
-# Since the totalview portion of the library must be built with -g, we
-# must eliminate the CFLAGS that are passed in here by default (which
-# may already have debugging and/or optimization flags).  We use
-# post-processed forms of the CFLAGS in the library targets down
-# below.
-
-CFLAGS = $(CFLAGS_WITHOUT_OPTFLAGS) $(DEBUGGER_CFLAGS)
-
 include $(top_srcdir)/Makefile.ompi-rules
 
 man_pages = orterun.1