31 August
Robert Felsing earned his PhD in Chinese history from the University of Iowa in 1979. He wrote his dissertation on the part played by secret societies in the Chinese revolution of 1911. Felsing also had an MA in library science, and had a long career as a research librarian; he worked at the University of Iowa library from 1979 to 1989, then at the University of Oregon Knight Library from 1989 to his retirement in 2011.
Donald Smith received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1978, with an emphasis in modern European history. He later moved to Oakland, California, where his career in the wind power industry earned him recognition as one of the pioneers in that field. Smith had earned a bachelor’s degree from Iowa State University in 1968, which he put to use in his roles as development engineer for Aero-Power, contract engineer for PG&E, and as a publisher of numerous papers and patents related to wind energy. He spent over a decade in the California Public Utilities Commission, where he helped oversee implementation of California’s renewable energy program.
Phillip Myers earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1978, focusing on the American Civil War and European diplomacy. He went on to work as a professor at Bellevue University in Nebraska, as a professor and graduate dean at Minnesota State University, as dean of graduate studies at William Patterson University in New Jersey, and director of the Office of Sponsored Programs at Western Kentucky University. Myers also founded the Western Kentucky University Research Foundation, which functioned to improve scholarship and met educational needs at the university.
Richard Murphy earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1977, with a focus in German history. He continued to live in Iowa City, where he worked for ACT for over two decades before his retirement.
Judith Meier earned her PhD from the University of Iowa in 1977. She spent one year abroad in London, conducting research for her dissertation on medieval English lawyers. Meier had worked as a history teacher at Concordia College in Edmonton, Alberta since 1971, and continued to do so both during and after completing her PhD. She filled numerous roles at Concordia, including dormitory house mother (1971-1975), history instructor (1971-2014), and Dean of Academic Affairs and Vice-President Academic (1980-1990).
David Doyle, a pioneer in the teaching of American and Irish-American history at the university level, received his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1977. His dissertation examined American expansionism from 1890 to 1901, with a focus on attitudes of Irish-Americans towards Native Americans and the divisions between those groups. Following his PhD, he taught courses covering Irish-American history, American history, and democracy and Christianity in the 19th and 20th centuries at the University College Dublin. He published a number of books, including Ireland, Irishmen and Revolutionary America 1760-1820 (1981) and The Encyclopedia of Irish-America (2000, with Michael Glazier et al).
John Phillips earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1976; his dissertation concerned English electoral behavior in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He went on to teach courses in British history at the University of California at Riverside, where he also served as assistant dean in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences from 1980 to 1981 and as the chair of the history department from 1992 to 1995. His published works – among them the books Electoral Behavior in Unreformed England: Plumpers, Splitters, and Straights (Princeton, 1982) and The Great Reform Bill in the Boroughs: English Electoral Behavior, 1818-1841 (Oxford, 1992) – exemplified his expertise in the field of quantitative analysis of English electoral behavior.
Kay Keeshan Hamod (1976)
Abraham Scherr (1974)
John Stack (1974)
Lathan A. Windley earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1974. From 1963 until his death in 1982, Windley taught courses at Morgan State University in Maryland covering United States history, colonial history, African-American history, slavery in the United States, the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the French Revolution. One of Windley’s most prominent scholarly contributions was editing the four volumes of Runaway Slave Advertisements: A Documentary History from the 1730s (Greenwood, 1983). He also authored the book A Profile of Runaway Slaves in Virginia and South Carolina from 1730 through 1787 (Routledge, 1995).
Robert Klaus received his PhD from the University in Iowa in 1973. Among other professional achievements, Klaus helped launch the National Spit Tobacco Education Program, worked in leadership positions in the Illinois Humanities Council and the Iowa Humanities Board, and facilitated the development the Wapello Native American site in Hanover Illinois by bringing together the Conservation Foundation and the Field Museum of Chicago. He also taught courses at the University of Iowa and at Northwestern University in Illinois and was involved with historical conservation efforts in Illinois and Iowa well into his retirement.
Michael D. Green earned his PhD from the University of Iowa in 1973. As an expert on the history of the Creek Indians before their removal from their native land in the 1830s, Green taught at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and published an extensive list of books and articles on that subject.
Dennis Melchert (1973)
Stephen H. Wurster (1972)