OAH Mourns the Passing of David Montgomery

The Organization of American Historians notes with sadness the passing of OAH Past President David Montgomery, Farnam Professor of History emeritus at Yale University, on December 2, 2011. Montgomery was 84 years of age.

David Montgomery is considered the dean of United States labor history. His book—a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 1988—Fall of the House of Labor: The Workplace, the State, and American Labor Activism, 1865-1925, remains a critical work that documented the decline of the labor movement in the United States. Before his career in academe, Montgomery was a farm laborer, an army staff sergeant, a radio announcer, and a machinist. He published many other books and articles dealing with workers’ struggles and with nineteenth-century politics and citizenship. He also established the journal International Labor and Working-Class History in its present form.

David joined the Organization of American Historians in 1961, and served it in many important capacities over the past thirty years. Montgomery was President of the OAH in 1999-2000, and held positions on OAH committees as well as appointments to the OAH Nominating and Executive boards. He also served fourteen years as an OAH Distinguished Lecturer. His counsel and good humor will be greatly missed.

A memorial gathering for David will be held at Yale University on Saturday January 28, 2012. The OAH also plans a remembrance and celebration of David’s life for Friday, April 20, at the 2012 OAH/NCPH Annual Meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Montgomery is survived by his wife, Martel, two sons, Claude and Edward, one brother (Daniel), one sister (Virginia), and five grandchildren. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a full obituary online at: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/11339/1194683-122-0.stm