obituaries

• 
• SOURCE: Collegiate Times
  11/8/19
  

  Distinguished professor, civil war historian James I. “Bud” Robertson Jr. passes away

  Robertson started his journey with Virginia Tech after joining the faculty in 1967, where he taught the nation’s largest Civil War history course, attracting 300 students each semester.

• 
• SOURCE: LA Times
  11/11/19
  

  Noel Ignatiev, scholar who called for abolishing whiteness, dies at 78

  Ignatiev’s ideas have continued to be controversial, particularly as race has returned to the center of American politics.

• 
• SOURCE: Black Perspectives
  11/7/19
  

  The Taproot Remains: On the Life and Legacy of Ernest J. Gaines

  by Matthew Teutsch

  "Gaines...wrote about the people he knew. The land he knew. Their struggles. Their joys. Their lives."

• 
• 10/31/19
  

  William Loren Katz: Teacher, Author, Editor and Activist (1927-2019)

  by Alan Singer

  William Loren Katz, historian who championed the marginalized, died on October 25, 2019. He was 92 years old.

• 
• SOURCE: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
  10/24/19
  

  Obituary: David William Miller / CMU history professor, expert on Ireland

  During the early 1960s — an intense period of racial strife in the South — the Millers were arrested and jailed after protesting segregation at the lunch counter of a railroad station in Houston.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  10/22/19
  

  Georgette Elgey, 90, Dies; Wrote Epic History of Postwar France

  A former journalist, she spent nearly 50 years producing an acclaimed six-volume work on the Fourth Republic. Her own life held plenty of drama of its own.

• 
• SOURCE: The Art Newspaper
  10/15/19
  

  Modern art historian, US museum director and clergyman EA Carmean, Jr has died, age 74

  He was the National Gallery of Art’s founding curator of 20th-century art and led the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth and Memphis Brooks Museum of Art.

• 
• SOURCE: University of Florida News
  9/19/19
  

  Historian David Colburn dies

  Dr. Colburn helped bring to light many of the uncovered racial stories of Florida, including in his book Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 1877-1980. 

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  9/19/19
  

  Mark von Hagen, Historian of Russian History, Dies at 65

  A historian, he was asked by the paper to judge whether a correspondent’s Pulitzer Prize should be revoked because of biased reporting. He said it should be.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  9/13/19
  

  Jean Edward Smith, Biographer of the Underrated, Dies at 86

  His books helped restore the reputations of Grant and Eisenhower and return John Marshall to the forefront of the American story.

• 
• 9/3/19
  

  Thou Shalt Not Ration Justice

  by Pamela Metzger and Andrew Davies

  The Norman Lefstein legacy: passionate, tireless efforts for indigent defense reform.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  8/19/19
  

  Myrna Katz Frommer, 80, Dies; Oral Historian of Catskills and Brooklyn

  She collaborated with her husband, Harvey, on “It Happened in the Catskills” and other histories told in the voices of the people who were there.

• 
• SOURCE: UVA Today
  7/22/19
  

  Reginald Butler, Former African American Studies Director at UVA, Dies

  He came to UVA in 1991, and became the second director of the Woodson Institute, especially supporting the study of local African American history using early digital technology.

• 
• SOURCE: Duke Today
  7/22/19
  

  Duke Professor Emeritus John Herd Thompson Dies at 72

  While at Duke, he served as chair of the history department and as director of the Canadian Studies program. He was known for his love of Canada, baseball and jazz, and for his devotion to his students.

• 
• SOURCE: NY Times
  7/11/19
  

  Colin Palmer, Historian of the African Diaspora, Is Dead at 75

  Colin A. Palmer, a historian who broadened the understanding of the African diaspora, showing that the American slave trade was only one part of a phenomenon that spanned centuries and influenced cultures worldwide, died on June 20 in Kingston, Jamaica. He was 75.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  7/9/19
  

  How Ross Perot Changed Political Campaigns

  Ross Perot, the self-made Texas billionaire and one of the most successful third-party presidential candidates in U.S. history, died on Tuesday. He was 89.

• 
• SOURCE: Boston Globe
  7/7/19
  

  Louie Howland, editor and award-winning maritime historian, dies at 81

  Mr. Howland was 81 when he died at home on June 21 of lung cancer, and though he sold textbooks early on, he later charted a memorable path as an editor and antiquarian bookseller in Boston’s literary world.

• 
• 7/7/19
  

  Charles Reich and The Greening of America – an Appreciation

  by James Thornton Harris

  Charles Reich, author of The Greening of America, passed away last month at the age of 91.Reich’s book, a combination of history, sociology and philosophy struck a chord in a somber time of war and national protest.

• 
• 6/23/19
  

  The Perfect Mentor: Alan Brinkley

  by Yanek Mieczkowski

  Beyond his impeccable scholarship and insightful lectures, Alan Brinkley was a mentor to dozens of doctoral students. In that role, he was perfect, providing profound lessons that will last through many careers, and likely, many lifetimes. 

• 
• SOURCE: UVA Today
  6/18/19
  

  Historian and Civil Rights Activist Paul Gaston Dies at 91

  Renowned Southern historian Paul Gaston, who grew to appreciate wine, “was wonderful and wonderfully complicated,” said UVA associate professor of history John Edwin Mason.