Stephen J. Tonsor III, UMich prof., dies at 90
Emeritus Professor of History Stephen J. Tonsor III, of Chelsea, formerly of Ann Arbor, died Jan. 8 at the Chelsea Retirement Community, Towsley Village. He was 90 years old.
He was born Nov. 26, 1923, in English Township, Ill., the son of Stephen J. Tonsor II and Rose Mary (Schmidt). He was a professor of history at the University of Michigan for 30 years, retiring in 1984, and a veteran of the United States Army. He served in the Signal Corps in the Pacific in World War II, and was honorably discharged in January 1946 as a staff sergeant.
Tonsor started his college education in Carlinville, Ill., at Blackburn College, a Presbyterian work-study college. After his second year, he was drafted into the United States Army. He completed his undergraduate degree on the GI Bill at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1948, and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois in 1955. He studied abroad at the University of Zurich and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Munich, and received his position at the University of Michigan as a professor of history, by letter, while in Germany.
While a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Tonsor and his wife worked for three summers as fire look-outs on Ruffneck Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains. He loved traveling and spending time outdoors, especially hiking and mountain climbing, and he was passionate about gardening. A member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Detroit, he enjoyed attending its German-language mass....
Read entire article at University of Michigan Record
He was born Nov. 26, 1923, in English Township, Ill., the son of Stephen J. Tonsor II and Rose Mary (Schmidt). He was a professor of history at the University of Michigan for 30 years, retiring in 1984, and a veteran of the United States Army. He served in the Signal Corps in the Pacific in World War II, and was honorably discharged in January 1946 as a staff sergeant.
Tonsor started his college education in Carlinville, Ill., at Blackburn College, a Presbyterian work-study college. After his second year, he was drafted into the United States Army. He completed his undergraduate degree on the GI Bill at the University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana in 1948, and received his Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois in 1955. He studied abroad at the University of Zurich and as a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Munich, and received his position at the University of Michigan as a professor of history, by letter, while in Germany.
While a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Tonsor and his wife worked for three summers as fire look-outs on Ruffneck Peak in the Sawtooth Mountains. He loved traveling and spending time outdoors, especially hiking and mountain climbing, and he was passionate about gardening. A member of St. Joseph Catholic Church in Detroit, he enjoyed attending its German-language mass....