1930s

Cecil O. Hahn (1939)

Melvin Wren earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1939. He served as an instructor at the University of Montana from 1940 to 1967; during this time, he also taught at the American University (1941-1942) and University of Maryland (1962-1963). In 1967, Wren moved on to work at the University of Toledo in Ohio. Throughout his career, he taught courses on Russian history and Western civilization, and published multiple books on Russian history, including The Western Impact on Tsarist Russia and The Course of Russian History.

Rosco L. Lokken (1939)
Millard W. Hansen (1939)
Martin L. Cole (1939)
Charles L. Green (1939)
Ruth Friedrich (1939)
Myron L. Koenig (1939)

Melvin Gingerich earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1939. He went on to teach at Washington Junior College in Iowa from 1930 to 1941, then at Goshen College in Indiana from 1949 to 1970, where he also served as Archivist of the Mennonite Church Archives from 1947 to 1970 and as editor of the Mennonite Historical Bulletin. In 1969, Gingerich travelled to Mennonite communities in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, helping local leaders establish archival policies. Though he formally retired in 1970, Gingerich continued to write, lecture, and serve as a consultant to church agencies until his death in 1975. His published works included Mennonites in Iowa (1939), Service for Peace (1949), Youth and Christian citizenship (1949), What of noncombatant service: a study of alternatives facing the conscientious objector (1949), Who’s Who Among the Mennonites (1943, as Assistant Editor), The Christian and revolution (1968), and Mennonite attire through four centuries (1970).

Lyle S. Shelmidine received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1939. During WWII, Shelmidine was a Naval Intelligence Officer, and was later involved in writing a military history of the war. Shelmidine joined the College of Puget Sound in Tacoma, Washington in 1936, and achieved full professorship in 1946. At the College of Puget Sound and as a visiting professor at the University of Montana, University of Puerto Rico, and University of Washington, Shelmidine taught courses in Islamic Studies and Near Eastern History. He also taught history and English courses at the American College in Tarsus, Turkey. Shelmidine maintained a lifelong interest in Turkey, and was acquainted with Turkish President Amal Ataturk and other notable Turkish figures.

Herbert W. Rice (1939)
Eugene R. Fair (1939)

Homer Calkin earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1939, specializing in British history. Calkin spent 37 years working for the Iowa State Department’s historian’s office, including many years as deputy director of the research and reference division. Calkin authored content for numerous journals, including the articles, “Women in the Department of State: Their Role in American Affairs” and, “Castings from the Foundry Mold,” a history of Foundry Methodist Church in Washington. He was a lifetime honorary member of the advisory board of the Friends of the University of Iowa Libraries, and he retired in 1977.

John H. Powell (1939)
Thomas Twelto (1939)
Laura M. Griffith (Nanes) (1938)

Gordon W. Prange received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1937, after which he started his teaching career as a history professor at the University of Maryland. In 1942, he took a leave of absence to serve as an officer in the U.S. Navy; he was sent to Japan in 1945 as a member of the American Occupation Forces. After the war, he remained in Japan as a civilian until 1951 to work as the chief of General Douglas MacArthur’s 100-person historical staff. In 1949, Prange arranged for the shipment of Civil Censorship Detachment materials to the University of Maryland, where the Board of Regents voted to name the collection the “Gordon W. Prange Collection: The Allied Presence in Japan, 1945-1952.”  Also see Gordon W. Prange Collection Blog.  Prange eventually returned to the University of Maryland where he taught until 1980. He is remembered for his works on the war, including the film Tora! Tora! Tora! and the books Miracle at Midway and At Dawn We Slept.

Hans F. Swansen (1936)
Harold T. Hagg (1936)
Walker D. Wyman (1935) 

Vernon Carstensen earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1936. After serving as a U.S. Army Quartermaster from 1943 to 1944, Carstensen taught at Central Washington University, then at the University of Wisconsin, where he co-authored University of Wisconsin: A History, which was published in 1949. Carstensen was an expert in agricultural and Pacific Northwest histories, and served as president of the Agricultural History Association in 1958. He was also a founding member of the Western History Association in 1961. In 1964, Carstensen began teaching at the University of Washington; there, he chaired the committee for the African American Studies program in 1969, and chaired the Faculty Senate in 1971, eventually retiring in 1975.

Merrill G. Burlingame received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1936. He began teaching at Montana State University in 1929, became chair of the history department in 1935, and was granted emeritus status in 1969. Burlingame specialized in the history of the American west, especially the state of Montana. He helped establish the Museum of the Rockies, and was the museum’s first director in 1959. He was also active in organizations including the Montana Historical Society, the Montana Institute of the Arts, the American Historical Society, and the Masonic fraternity, and helped found the Gallatin County Historical Society and Pioneer Museum in 1977. Burlingame contributed numerous articles to Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Pacific Northwest Quarterly, and Montana: The Magazine of Western History. His books include The Montana Frontier (1942), A History of Montana (with K. Ross Toole, 1956), A History of Montana State University (1968), and John M. Bozeman, Montana Trailmaker (1971).

Phillip D. Jordan (1935) earned his PhD from the Univeristy of Iowa in 1935 with his dissertation, “William Salter and the Influence of the Andover Band in Iowa, 1843-1910.” Following graduation, Jordan became a history professor at University of Minnesota-St. Paul. Jordan published in a wide array of different journals, including Social Education, Minnesota History, Iowa Journal of History, Names, Western Folklore, and Southern Folklore Quarterly—a list that is only the tip of the iceberg.  In addition to his many articles, Jordan published Singin’ Yankees in 1945 and The National Road shortly after. Later, he published The People’s Health: A History of Public Health in Minnesota which won the 1954 Award of Merit from the American Association of State and Local History. Jordan was an active member of the Mississippi Valley Historical Association and the National Council for Social Studies. He frequently gave talks at conferences and other various organization both about his research but also about teaching social studies. He was also active in Phi Alpha Theta History Honor’s Society and delivered the meeting’s keynote address in 1960. 

Charles H. Norby (1935) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1935 with his dissertation, “The West During the Civil War Decade.” Following graduation, Norby taught at Iowa State College. During WWII, he took leave from teaching to serve in the war as a Lieutenant Commander in the U.S. Navy. Unfortunately, shortly after the war ended Norby died of a heart attack while stationed in Chapel Hill, North Carolina in 1946. 

Guy F. Hershberger earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1935 with a dissertation on Quaker politics in colonial Pennsylvania. Hershberger spent much of his career at Goshen College in Indiana, where he began teaching in 1925. He helped found The Mennonite Quarterly Review in 1927 and stayed on its editorial staff throughout his life, and launched the Peace Society at Goshen. From 1939 to 1965, Hershberger served as executive secretary of the Committee of Economic and Social Relations, where he helped shape a Mennonite social ethic which included helping to found Mennonite Mutual Aid in 1945 and the Mennonite Community Association in 1946. Hershberger published his major work War, Peace, and Nonresistance in 1944, and his book The Mennonite Church in the Second World War in 1951. He retired from Goshen in 1966, and is remembered as the preeminent Anabaptist-Mennonite historian of his generation.

Arthur G. Umscheid (1935)earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1935 with his dissertation “The Continental Tariffs and British Free Trade, 1870-1900.” Following graduation, Umscheid moved to Omaha, Nebraska where he worked as a professor of history at Creighton University. During his time in Omaha, Umscheid became very involved with the community. He also worked as a news analyst and commentator for KOWH Radio Station, participated in the Planning Committee on the Municipal Library Project, and served as the secretary of the Omaha Committee on Foreign Relations. Umscheid was a staunch anti-communist advocate, and often spoke at the annual foreign policy meeting of the national Council on Foreign Relations in New York City. In June of 1954 he delivered his speech “The Revolutionary Appeal of Communism,” which was one of many over the years that he gave around Omaha and elsewhere.

Walker D. Wyman (1935) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1935. Wyman taught courses in history, geography, political science, and economics at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls, beginning in 1932. He later moved to UW-Whitewater, where he served as university president from 1962 to 1967. In 1967, he returned to UW-River Falls as professor emeritus of U.S. History and Folklore, where he helped create the University Archives and continued teaching courses until 1978. His 23 books and other published works range in topic from water witching, wolf and bear stories, and mythical creatures to histories of UW-River Falls and the Wisconsin State University System.

L.E. Mantor (1934) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1934, focusing on the history of railroads in Iowa before the Civil War. He started teaching as a history professor at the Nebraska State Teachers College in Kearney, Nebraska in 1927. Following the completion of his doctoral program in Iowa, Mantor became the Chairman of the Social Science Division at the teachers’ college. He remained at Kearney State College until his retirement in 1964. 

Oscar A. Kinchen (1934) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1934, focusing on British, Canadian, and diplomatic history. Kinchen went on to teach at Butler College, Oklahoma City College, and Olivet College, and eventually landed a faculty position at Texas Technical College (now Texas Tech University) in the history and anthropology department. Much of his work focused on little-known aspects of Canadian-U.S. relations during the American Civil War, and he wrote numerous publications on the subject. These included articles in Canadian Historical Review, Vermont History, and the Chronicles of Oklahoma and the books Lord Russell’s Canadian Policy (1945), The Rise and Fall of the Patriot Hunters (1956), Daredevils of the Confederate Army (1959), Confederate Operations in Canada and the North (1970), and Women Who Spied for the Blue and the Gray (1973).

Wasyl Halich (1934) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1934 with a dissertation titled, “Economic Aspects of Ukrainian Activities in the United States.” He went on to teach courses in Russian and European history at Wisconsin State University, Superior. Halich also regularly gave talks on historical topics throughout Wisconsin, Michigan, and Minnesota. He was considered a pioneer in the study of Ukrainians in America and he published a book on the subject in 1937. As well as his native Ukrania, Halich studied many languages, including English, Russian, Polish, German, Greek, Latin, and French.

Richard Drost (1934) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1934 with his dissertation, “Forced Labor in the South Pacific.” He taught and Central College and Simpson College, both located in Iowa, from 1929 to 1939. In 1939, Drost moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, where he took a teaching position at Calvin College. Drost stayed at Calvin College until his retirement in 1961, working in a range of positions including professor of history and chairman of the history department. He also served on various committees at the college and led the Men’s Society and Young Men’s Society in his local region.

John A. Greenlee (1934) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1934, where he specialized in British history. Greenlee spent 30 years in Iowa teaching college courses and serving in administrative roles, including 20 years at the University of Iowa. He later continued his education at the University of California at Berkley, where he studied British history and higher education. Greenlee went to the California State College in 1965 to serve as vice president of academic affairs, and later became the college’s fifth president, in 1966. He retired in 1979.

Justin Sr Williams (1933) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1933 with his dissertation “British Naval Stores Policy.” Following graduation, Williams worked for River Falls Teachers College in Wisconsin. He actively published articles for future history teachers in Wisconsin Journal of Education including “Teacher-College Graduates and Secondary Positions” in 1941.During WWII, Williams took a leave from teaching to serve in the military. In 1946 he was reported as being a captain serving with the General Headquarters in Tokyo as part of the effort to occupy Japan following the war.

W.D. Houlett (1933)

Everett W. Thornton (1933) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1933 with his dissertation, “The Emergence of a New American Colonial Policy, 1898-1902.” Following graduation, Thornton worked as a history professor at Sioux Falls College. In 1941 the University of Iowa History Department newsletter reported that Thornton was appointed to be President of the South Dakota Social Science Association. Later, Thornton took a position as a history professor at Oklahoma Baptist University. He frequently published in The Social Studies. He also published his book The Colonial Schoolmaster in 1949 during his time at Oklahoma Baptist. 

W.O. Mishoff (1933) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1933 with his dissertation “The Indian Policy of Sir William Johnson.” After graduation, Mishoff frequently published articles for both The Historical Society of Pennsylvania and The American Library Association. Mishoff dedicated his career to the study of library sciences and archival. From 1938 to 1943, Mishoff served as the director of the University of Central Missouri Library. From 1943-1958 he served as a library specialist in the U.S. Office of Education. Before retirement in 1966, he taught classes in reference and bibliography at San Jose State College. His work is cataloged in the Online Archive of California.

Cecil E. Marshall (1933) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1933 with his dissertation, later turned book, “The Birth of New Society in New Spain.” In 1940, Marshall published “The Birth of the Mestizo in New Spain” in Hispanic American Historical Review.

Charlton W. Tebeau earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1933. He went on to teach history at the University of Miami, and wrote A History of Florida (1971), which was regarded as the definitive history of the state until several scholars published The New History of Florida in 1995. Tebeau helped to star the Historical Museum of Southern Florida and served as the editor of its annual historical journal Tequesta for 40 years.

Allen G. Umbreit (1932) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1932 with his dissertation “Education in the Southern Colonies, 1607-1776.” Following graduation, Umbreit was offered a position at Muskegon Community College where he served as President of the college until 1958. The Muskegon library was named after him until 2006 when it was renamed the Hendrik Meijer Library. Umbreit also has a memorial scholarship in his honor.

Paul O. Carr (1932) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1932 with his dissertation “The Treaty of Fort Stanwix, 1768.” Following graduation, Carr was offered a position at Wilson Teachers College in the Department of History. In 1945, the Iowa Department of History newsletter reported that Carr was the head of the department at Wilson. He was active in the education world, publishing “Suggestions for Teachers in the Elementary and Secondary Schools” in a U.S. Office of Education Bulletin. Wilson Teachers College was renamed to the District of Columbia Teachers College, and Carr was promoted to Dean of Instruction in July of 1955. Carr retired in 1966 after serving as the President of the District of Columbia Teachers College. After retirement, he worked with the American Driver and Safety Education Association.

Edwin H. Cates (1932) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1932 with his dissertation “American Military Defense and Public Opinions Since the World War.” Following graduation, Cates took a position in St. Cloud State College’s department of history. He published his book The English in America in 1966. In 1969, he published a book titled, A Centennial History of St. Cloud State College, which served as a case study to represent publicly supported state colleges and universities in the twentieth century.

Boyd C. Shafer (1932) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1932. During and following WWII, Shafer held a position on the staff of the Senate of Foreign Relations Committee and in the War Department Historical Division. Shafer went on to become executive director of the American Historical Association and editor of the American Historical Review from 1953 to 1963. He later served as an emeritus professor of history at the University of Arizona, and taught courses at Stout Institute in Menomonie, Wisconsin. He also worked as a history professor at Macalaster College in Minnesota and at the University of Arkansas, where he remained until his retirement. Shafer’s publications ranged from studies of historians, to high school textbooks, though he devoted most of his research to studying nationalism, which led to the publication of several editions of the pamphlet Nationalism: Interpreters and Interpretations in the series of the AHA’s Service Center for Teachers of History.

Chester A. Sipple (1931) earned his PhD from the Univeristy of Iowa in 1931 with his dissertation, later turned book, “British Foreign Policy Since the World War” which discussed British foreign policy initiatives following WWI. 

Chellis N. Evanson (1931) received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1931 with his dissertation “Sir Francis Nicholson, a Royal Governor in the Chesapeake Colonies During the Period 1690-1705.”  He worked at Luther College in Iowa as a professor of history from 1919 to 1966. During that time, he served in the U.S. Navy during WWII and started Luther College News Service. During the war, Evanson wrote a newsletter titled “Scuttlebutt” that went out to all Luther students and alumni serving in the war. Luther College currently houses Evanston’s collections of papers including the “Scuttlebut” newsletter and 707 letters written to other Luther service members. 

William J. Petersen (1930) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1930. His dissertation, “Steamboating on the Upper Mississippi,” was published as a book in 1937 and republished with new materials in 1968. Petersen was associated with the Iowa State Historical Society for over 40 years, during which time he studied and wrote about the history of Iowa and the Upper Mississippi Valley, particularly as it related to river history and steamboats. His focus on these topics earned him the nickname “Steamboat Bill.” Substantial materials from Petersen’s life, including research notes, newspapers, photographs, and other documents, are archived at the University of Dubuque in Dubuque, Iowa.

Floyd A. McNeal (1930) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1929 with his dissertation “Lincoln’s Attorney General: Edward Bates.” After graduation, McNeil took a position in the Department of History at Principia College in Elash, Illinois, where he taught until his retirement in 1960. During that time, McNeil was active in the Mississippi Valley Historical Society.  He published several articles including “The Early Histories of St. Louis” and “The Correspondence of Thomas Jefferson and Francis Walker Gilmer, 1815-1836.” Upon his retirement, McNeil moved to La Mesa, California. 

Elmer Ellis (1930) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1930; he joined the department of history at the University of Missouri later that same year. After 15 years as a history professor, he became dean of the college of arts and sciences in 1945. He served as President of the University of Missouri from 1955 to 1966, during which time he played a crucial role in the expansion of the university to include University of Missouri-Kansas City and University of Missouri-St. Louis; the university named Ellis Library in his honor. Ellis held the title President Emeritus from 1966 until his death in 1989. Some of his published works include Mr. Dooley at His Best (1938), Henry Moore Teller, Defender of the West (1941), Mr. Dooley’s America, a Life of Finley Peter Dunne (1941), Toward Better Teaching in College (1954), and My Road to Emeritus (1988).

Howard R. Anderson (1930) recieved his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1930 with his dissertation “The International Status of Belgium, 1813-1839.” Following graduation, Iowa offered Anderson a job as a professor of history. One of the courses he taught was titled “The Teaching of History” and Anderson appears to have had connections in the College of Education, as he is listed as the advisor on several dissertations from students of education. In 1937, Anderson began teaching history at Cornell University.

Paul H. Giddens (1930) earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1930. He served as a professor of history and political science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania from 1931 to 1953, including a 15-year stint as chairman of the department. Giddens’ research focus was the beginnings of the oil industry in Pennsylvania and the American Midwest. In 1953, he was hired by Hamline College in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where he served as president until 1967. From 1967 until his retirement in 1970, Giddens worked as a historical consultant for the Standard Oil Company of Indiana. His book The Birth of the Oil Industry was published in 1938.  Michael J. Zavacky and Kristen R. Woolever, “Ramblings on Early Oil History: An Interview with Paul H. Giddens on Ida Tarbell,” Historical Society Notes and Documents(1983).