In Memoriam

Frank L. Byrne

Frank L. Byrne, Professor Emeritus of History at Kent State University, died on 21 April 2002. Frank was born on 12 May 1928 in Hackensack, New Jersey. He received his B.A. from Trenton State College and went on to complete both an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin under the direction of William B. Hesseltine. After service in the U.S. Army, he taught at Louisiana State University from 1957-1958 and Creighton University from 1958-1966. He joined the Kent State history faculty in 1966 and retired in 1995. He was the Project Editor of the Robert A. Taft Papers (Kent State University Press), the editor of a series of Civil War memoirs for the University of Tennessee Press, and the author of four books and over fifty articles.

While at Kent State, Frank directed twenty-one M.A. theses and nineteen doctoral dissertations. He was a mentor and friend to his graduate students and they admired him as a masterful teacher. One of his students noted that “they knew him to be a serious scholar, yet he endeared himself to all because of his sense of humor, a memorable laugh, and a treasury of stories about the profession.” Another spoke of “his encyclopedic knowledge of American history. His lectures were thorough, clear, stimulating and his command of historiography was truly amazing. He always challenged his graduate students and was always supportive of them. Any success I enjoy in the profession I owe to Dr. Byrne.”

He was a member of the Southern Historical Association and the American Historical Association. On 12 April 2002 he was honored as a fifty year member of the Organization of American Historians at its annual meeting in Washington D.C. After the meeting he and his wife Marilyn visited Colonial Williamsburg. Perhaps it is only fitting that his life ended as he was returning home from a scholarly conference and a side visit to a historical site. Frank is survived by his wife Marilyn; daughter Anne Boyles and grandsons Ian, Sean, and Alec of Kent; son Frank, assistant professor of history, SUNY Oswego; sisters Catherine Mitchell of Ledgewood, NJ and Grace Byrne of Bloomingburg, NY; and many nieces and nephews. He also leaves a host of admiring friends and colleagues.