the oah news archive
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In Memoriam
We remember in this space the passings of OAH members, friends, colleagues, and others within the profession. Please submit your announcement using this form
Robert Remini
Robert Remini, former historian for the US House of Representatives, died April 1, 2013. He was 91 years old. A member of the Organization of American Historians for more than 52 years, Remini was an award-winning biographer and "foremost Jacksonian scholar of our time."
Walter L. Sargent
Walter L. Sargent, University of Maine Farmington, passed away on January 27.
Vernon S. "Pete" Braswell
Vernon S. "Pete" Braswell died January 31, 2013. Braswell taught American history at Del Mar College from 1965 until 1989. He was in his fiftieth year as a member of the Organization of American Historians.
Edward M. Bennett
Edward M. Bennett died on March 3, 2013. He taught for 33 years at Washington State University and was a member of the OAH for more than 50 years.
Robert H. Zieger
Robert H. Zieger, Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Florida, passed away on March 6, 2013. Zieger, a fify-one-year member of the OAH, began his teaching career at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point in 1964 and moved to the University of Florida in 1986. Paul Ortiz, University of Florida, has written a remembrance of Professor Zieger for the Southern Labor Studies Association Web site.
Gerda Lerner
Gerda Lerner, past president of the Organization of American Historians (1981-1982), and pioneer in women's and gender history, passed away on January 2, 2013 at the age of 92.
Thomas K. McCraw
Thomas K. McCraw, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Emeritus, at Harvard Business School (HBS), and former editor of the Business History Review, died on Saturday, November 3, 2012, following a long illness.
Herbert Shapiro
University of Cincinnati professor emeritus Herbert Shapiro passed away on October 17, 2012. Shapiro was a member of OAH for more than forty-five years. Roger Daniels remembers "Herb" Shapiro, his colleague at the University of Cincinnati.
Alfred F. Young
Northern Illinois University professor Alfred F. Young passed away Tuesday, November 6, 2012, at the age of 87. Young, a fifty year member of the OAH, was the recipient of the OAH Distinguished Service Award in 2000. Upon his retirement from NIU, he was a Senior Research Fellow at the Newberry Library in Chicago, until 2005.
Alexander Saxton
University of California, Los Angeles historian Alexander Saxton died on September 1, 2012 at the age of 93.
Bertram Wyatt-Brown
The OAH is saddened to learn of the passing of Bertram Wyatt-Brown. Wyatt-Brown died November 4, 2012. He was 80 years of age.
Paul Young
OAH member and Utica College professor of history, Paul Young, died On October 1, 2012. He was 67.
John C. Williams
John C. Williams, an OAH life member, died on October 19, 2012 in Brewster, MA. He was 74 years of age. Williams received his BA in history and MA in teaching from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He taught history and Social Studies for 36 years, much of it in the Weston (MA) Public Schools.
Irene Neu Jones
Professor Irene Neu Jones, 96, of Marietta, died October 5, 2012 at Marietta Memorial Hospital. Professor Jones was born March 21, 1916, in Cincinnati, Ohio, to Frederick F. Neu and Mary Clara (Holderman) Neu. She graduated from Marietta College in 1944 with a degree in history, and obtained her PhD in history from Cornell University in 1950. As a professor of history, she dedicated the next 66 years of her life to the education of college students and the expansion of their knowledge of history. During her active professorial career, she held numerous chair positions. Upon her retirement from full time teaching, she was named Professor Emeritus at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., in November of 1986. She was an active member of St. Mary Catholic Church in Marietta. A strong supporter of the Legacy Library of Marietta College, Irene was an active volunteer there until her death. She also served on the board of directors of The Women's Home of Marietta.
Anna Kasten Nelson
Distinguished Historian-in-Residence at American University, died at her home in Washington DC, on September 27, 2012. Anna K. Nelson taught courses related to the history of American Foreign Relations from 1783 to the present. She wrote her dissertation and published on the diplomacy of the 19th century before moving her research into the post World War II period. In addition to her teaching and research, she has testified before Congress and written in support of Freedom of Information Act and access to documents in the National Archives. She was a member of the Department of State Advisory Committee on Historical Diplomatic Documentation and received a presidential appointment to the John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Review Board. She was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Paul Nelson, and is survived by her sister Reba Kasten Nosoff, her two sons, Eric (Sarah) and Michael; and her three grandchildren Faith, Marc, and Jeffrey Nelson.
Henry F. May
Henry May, one of his generation’s most distinguished historians, died Saturday, September 29, at the age of 97. May was Margaret Bryne Professor of American History Emeritus at the University of California Berkeley, where he had taught from 1952 until his retirement in 1980.
James Lorence
James Lorence, died in June 2012. For 35 years he had taught at the University of Wisconsin Marathon County. Lorence joined the OAH in 1964.
Lee Benson
Dr. Lee Benson, professor emeritus of history and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the University of Pennsylvania's Netter Center for Community Partnerships, died on February 10, 2012. He was 90 years of age. Dr. Benson, a 45-year member of the OAH, graduated from Brooklyn College in 1947. He received his MA from Columbia University in 1948 and his PhD from Cornell University in 1952.
Thomas J. Pressly
Longtime OAH member Thomas J. Pressly died at age 93 on April 3, 2012. Read more >
Betty Miller Unterberger
OAH notes with sadness the passing of longtime member Betty Miller Unterberger. A native of Scotland, she began her college career at Syracuse University, earned her Master's degree at Radcliffe College (now Harvard), and completed her PhD at Duke University. A pioneer in her own right, Unterberger was Texas A&M's first female professor, and was the first woman president of the Society of Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR). Read more about her life in a profile OAH printed in August 2005 in the OAH Newsletter.
Naomi Wulf, 1964-2012
Naomi Wulf’s many American friends were deeply saddened to learn of her death on April 17, 2012, after her courageous, decade-long struggle with cancer. Naomi was a key figure in the American Studies community in France and throughout Europe. Born in 1964 of mixed Franco-American parentage, Naomi promoted a broader and deeper understanding of her two countries through her scholarship and her warm personal connections with fellow scholars.
Naomi completed her PhD. under the mentorship of the distinguished Americanist Elise Marienstras at Université Paris Diderot-Paris 7 and first taught at Paris-12, now the Université Paris-Est Créteil; in 2007, she was named professor of American History at the Universit? Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3. At the time of her death Naomi was revising her prize-winning doctoral dissertation for publication as a book, “Democracy in America”: Orestes Brownson, American Critic of Jacksonian America. Naomi was convinced that this brilliant and eccentric preacher, social reformer and Catholic convert offered an illuminating counterpoint to Alexis de Tocqueville’s famous contemporaneous account of the new nation’s political culture in his classic Democracy in America. Naomi worked on her project for many years, exploring Brownson’s Jeffersonian roots as a fellow at the Robert H. Smith International Center for Jefferson Studies (Monticello) in the Fall of 2010.
Naomi had a genius for collaboration and conference-organizing. Co-author of two monographs with her mentor Elise Marienstras, Naomi also edited volumes of conference proceedings and special issues of journals with Marienstras, Marie-Jeanne Rossignol, and Nathalie Caron. With Caron, her dear friend and now professor at Paris-Est Créteil, Naomi published “Les Lumières américaines: continuitiés et renouveau” in the on-line journal Transatlantica in 2009. This important essay was awarded the David Thelen Prize for the best foreign-language article on American history at the April meeting of the Organization of American Historians in Milwaukee and will be appear in English translation in The Journal of American History in 2013.
Naomi Wulf will be sorely missed by everyone who had the privilege of knowing her.
Peter Onuf, University of Virginia
Nathalie Caron, Paris-Est Créteil
Paul S. Boyer 1935-2012
The OAH notes with sadness the passing of Paul S. Boyer, professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, and fifty-year member of the OAH. http://www.cressfuneralservice.com/obituary/89729/Paul-Boyer/
Gerald T. Flom, 1930-2011
Sarah Ruth Hammond, 1977-2011
For more information, please visit theoberlinnewstribune.com/obituaries/sarah-ruth-hammond/.
John Morton Blum, 1921-2011
John Morton Blum, Sterling Professor of History Emeritus at Yale University, died at his home in North Branford, Connecticut on October 17, 2011 at the age of ninety. A preeminent scholar of American politics and culture during the second half of the twentieth century, Blum was born on April 29, 1921 in New York City. A Yankee fan from his early youth, Blum followed the Bronx Bombers, the NFL Giants, and Yale football with equal gusto. He was educated at Andover and at Harvard, from which he received his Ph.D in 1950. He was a co-editor of the Letters of Theodore Roosevelt (1951—1954). Blum taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology from 1949 to 1957 and at Yale from 1957 to 1991. Among his thirteen books, The Republican Roosevelt (1954) and V was for Victory (1976) had the widest influence, but his three—volume work From the Morgenthau Diaries (1959—1967) displayed the extensive range of his talents. His memoir A Life with History (2004) traced the many accomplishments of his career as author, scholar, and administrator in lucid and revealing prose. He was a gifted undergraduate lecturer whose recreation of Theodore Roosevelt at Kettle Hill became a classic experience for his student listeners. He was also a superb mentor to his many graduate students and friends within the historical profession. A memorial service at Yale University on November 11, 2011 brought more than 500 people together to honor his rich life, his vibrant personality, and his outstanding scholarly accomplishments. He lineis survived by Pamela Z. Blum (pzb23@comcast.net) of 88 Notch Hill Road, #176, North Branford, CT, 06471, their three children and three grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made to the John Morton Blum Fellowship in American History at Yale University or to the scholarship fund of your choice at any university.
Lewis L. Gould
David Montgomery 1927-2011
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.
Allen William Trelease, 1928-2011
Nancy Imlay Chard 1933-2010
For more information, please visit www.legacy.com/obituaries/rutlandherald/obituary.aspx?n=nancy-chard&pid=139844380&fhid=4763.
William S. Hanable, 1938-2011
Robert W. Johannsen, 1925-2011
Robert W. Johannsen, J. G. Randall Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Illinois, died in Urbana, Illinois, on August 16, 2011, six days shy of his 86th birthday.
Best known for Stephen A. Douglas (1973), his biography of the Little Giant, Johannsen also wrote extensively on Lincoln, the Pacific Northwest in the frontier period, and the U.S.-Mexican War.
A native of Portland, Oregon, Johannsen graduated from Reed College in 1948, after his studies were interrupted by combat service in World War II. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Washington. After teaching a year at Washington and five years at the University of Kansas, he joined the Department of History at Illinois in 1959.
He attracted hundreds of students to his courses on nineteenth-century American history, the Jacksonian era and the Civil War. He also directed more than 35 dissertations.
In his writings, he endeavored to document the importance of Douglas in his own day. He sought to explain, not to defend, the Little Giant. Conversely, he attempted to moderate the popular, and even the professional, tendency to magnify Lincoln, to lift him beyond his own time and place.
Johannsen published not only a number of books and anthologies but also dozens of articles and reviews. The list of his writings in Politics and Culture of the Civil War Era: Essays in Honor of Robert W. Johannsen (2006) runs to 20 pages.
Johannsen was deeply committed to the study of the past and devoted beyond measure to teaching it. Those fortunate to have known him will always cherish the gentleness, warmth, and civility that pervaded his conversation and demeanor.
Vincent DeSantis, 1916-2011
VINCENT P. DE SANTIS, noted historian of the Gilded Age, died in Victoria, British Columbia on June 5, 2011 at the age of 94. A faculty member at the University of Notre Dame for over sixty years, he was a native of Birdsboro, PA. where he was born on December 25, 1916 to an Italian immigrant and his American wife. After graduating from Birdsboro High School, he spent two years at manual labor earning money for college. He graduated from West Chester State Teachers’ College in 1941, at which time he entered the Army as a private and served with the 19th Regiment of the 24th Infantry Division in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands. He left the service in December 1945 as a captain.
He used the GI bill to enter graduate school in history at Harvard University and then completed his doctoral degree at Johns Hopkins, studying under the eminent C. Vann Woodward. He began teaching at Notre Dame in 1949 and continued his tenure until 2010, producing fifteen doctoral students and being a favorite undergraduate teacher. He received three Fulbrights for teaching and research in Italy, India, and Australia.
His first book Republicans Face the Southern Question, The New Departure Years, 1877-1897 is the definitive work on southern politics and the freed people in the late 19th century. His textbook, which covered the Gilded Age through the Progressive Period, is widely used in college classrooms around the nation. He meticulously kept a daily diary beginning with his college days in the 1930s. He continued to research and write until his last days, still able to hold his own on the latest historiography.
He was a regular attendee at history conferences and was well known for his ability to tease his friends and colleagues. He could remember jokes about them for years. He also financially supported a variety of individuals and academic institutions.
He was married twice, his first marriage producing four sons. He is buried in Birdsboro, Pennsylvania.
John F. Marszalek
Ulysses S. Grant Association
Mississippi State University
Elwin F. Hartwig
Professor Elwin F. Hartwig - 1929-2011
Otis Pease
Professor Otis A. Pease, September 6, 1925 - September 16, 2010, was a member of OAH since 1953. Read more >
Robert Griffith
As his colleagues, we remember these gentle and generous ways as we mourn the loss of Robert Griffith, professor and chairman of the history department at American University in Washington, D.C. and OAH Treasurer, who passed away on Tuesday, January 25, 2011 at the age of sixty-nine. Read more >
Dr. Robert J. Rusnak
Long time OAH member, Dr. Robert J. Rusnak, passed away November 21, 2010. For more information, please visit www.legacy.com/obituaries/chicagotribune/obituary.aspx?n=robert-jay-rusnak&pid=146822720.
Dr. Craig Wollner
Dr. Craig Wollner, Portland State University, Oct. 17, 1943 - Nov. 20, 2010. For more information, please visit obits.oregonlive.com/obituaries/oregon/obituary.aspx?n=craig-evan-wollner&pid=146922016.
Lawrence Gelfand
Distinguished OAH member and Professor Emeritus in the Department of History at the University of Iowa, Lawrence E. Gelfand passed away in Irvine, California on November 30, 2010. For more information, please visit www.press-citizen.com/article/20101207/NEWS02/12070325/Lawrence-Gelfand-84.
Richard E. Herrmann
Richard E. Herrmann, January 17, 2010, Volunteer State Community College, Gallatin, Tennessee. For more information, please visit www.stategazette.com/story/1603436.html.
William H. Goetzmann
Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and OAH member, Dr. William H. Goetzmann, died September 7, 2010. For more information, please visit www.post-gazette.com/pg/10262/1088642-122.stm.
Robert Hohner
Robert A. Hohner, a historian of early twentieth-century southern politics, died on August 8, 2010, at his home in London, Ontario. In an educational career interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy, Bob received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Duke University. After teaching briefly at the U.S. Naval Academy, Bob took a position in 1965 at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), where he remained in the Department of History until his retirement in 2001. Read more >
David Weber
David J. Weber, the founding director of the William P. Clements Center for Southwest Studies at Southern Methodist University, died on August 20, 2010, of multiple myeloma. Weber served the OAH in various capacities, most recently as a member of the OAH Executive Board (2006–2009) and as an OAH Distinguished Lecturer (1995–2001). For more information, visit www.smu.edu/News/2010/david-weber-dies-23aug2010.aspx.
Peggy Pascoe
Peggy Pascoe, long time OAH member, and 2009 winner of the Lawrence W. Levine Prize for the best book in American cultural history, died on July 23, 2010 at the age of 55. For a complete obituary and brief biography, please visit http://history.uoregon.edu/news/pascoe_obituary/.
Elizabeth Whitaker
OAH member Elizabeth Whitaker passed away on April 10, 2010 at the age of 51. She was a published author, lecturer, and researcher. For a complete obituary and brief biography, please visit http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx.
Ferenc “Frank” Szasz
Distinguished OAH member and University of New Mexico Regents’ Professor of History Ferenc “Frank” Szasz passed away Sunday, June 20, at the age of 70. For a complete obituary and brief biography, please visit http://news.unm.edu/2010/06/history-professor-ferenc-szasz-dies/.
The History Department and the UNM Foundation will be sending out an announcement shortly vis a vis the Service of Celebration of Ferenc’s life. The service will be held at the UNM Alumni Memorial Chapel from 2–4 p.m. on Friday, 27 August, with a reception hosted by the History Department directly after.
The announcement will also include contact information for contributions to the Fellowship established in our names. I list that information below, which you are welcome to add to the OAH website:
The Ferenc Morton Szasz and Margaret Connell—Szasz PhD Dissertation Fellowship in History
University of New Mexico
College of Arts & Sciences
MSC03 2120
1 University of New Mexico
Albuquerque, NM 87131
Attn: Jeff MacNutt
William Preston Jr.
William Preston Jr., a historian and activist whose 1963 book Aliens and Dissenters: Federal Suppression of Radicals, 1903–1933 helped open a new field of scholarly inquiry into government policies that repressed radicals and restricted civil liberties, died on April 19, 2010, at his home in Martha’s Vineyard. He was 85. Read more >
Louis R. Harlan
Louis R. Harlan, Distinguished University Professor emeritus at the University of Maryland, College Park, died on January 22, 2010, in Lexington, Virginia, where he and his wife Sadie had lived in retirement since 2003. He ranks among the leading historians of his generation whose body of work on Booker T. Washington and his study Separate and Unequal: Public School Campaigns and Racism in the Southern Seaboard States, 1901–1915 (1958) leave an enduring legacy. He will also be remembered for his many contributions to the historical profession, holding the distinction of being the only person to serve concurrent terms as president of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Southern Historical Association. Read more >
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