AMBROSE, Stephen E(dward) 1936-2002

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 10, 1936, in Decatur, IL; died of lung cancer October 13, 2002, in Bay St. Louis, MS. Historian, educator, and author. Ambrose was a popular author of history who was especially acclaimed for his writings about World War II. He earned his master's degree from Louisiana State University (now the University of New Orleans) in 1958 and his doctorate from the University of Wisconsin in 1963. Except for the five-year period from 1964 to 1969 when he was an associate professor of history at Johns Hopkins University, Ambrose spent most of his academic career at the University of New Orleans, where he was Boyd Professor of History from 1989 until his 1995 retirement as professor emeritus. Ambrose's writing career began in 1962 when he published Halleck: Lincoln's Chief of Staff. The book so impressed former President Dwight D. Eisenhower that he asked the historian to write his two-volume biography. Ambrose eventually went on to write six books about Eisenhower, including one for children. Ambrose was also the founder of the Eisenhower Center, and was Dwight D. Eisenhower Professor of War and Peace at Kansas State University from 1970 to 1971. In addition to Eisenhower, Ambrose was fascinated by Richard M. Nixon, writing a three-volume set on the more recent former U.S. president. Despite being a prolific writer, however, the historian remained known largely within academic circles until he published the bestseller D-Day, June 6, 1944: The Climactic Battle of World War II (1994). The popularity of this work encouraged Ambrose to write many more military histories, including Citizen Soldiers: The U.S. Army from the Normandy Beaches to the Bulge to the Surrender of Germany (1997) and The Good Fight: How World WarIIWasWon (2001). He also wrote acclaimed books about explorers Lewis and Clark, the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the western expansion of the United States. By the late 1990s Ambrose had become well-known to the general reading public, but his success was somewhat eclipsed by accusations of plagiarism in his 2001 book The Wild Blue: The Men and Boys Who Flew the B-24s over Germany. Although he survived the scandal by saying he had properly footnoted the passages, Ambrose did not escape being grouped with several other academics accused of plagiarism in a rash of scandals in academia during that same time. Nevertheless, he continued to be praised for his role in helping to popularize the study of World War II in America. In addition to his writing accomplishments, Ambrose was the founder and director, beginning in 2000, of the National D-Day Museum in New Orleans and the president of his own company, Stephen Ambrose Historical Tours. He was a consultant to the 1998 film Saving Private Ryan and the Ken Burns-directed documentary Lewis & Clark. His book Band of Brothers: E Company, 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne, from Normandy to Hitler's Eagle's Nest was adapted as a television miniseries in 2001.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

BOOKS

Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 145, Gale (Detroit, MI), 2001.

Who's Who in America, 56th edition, Marquis (New Providence, NJ), 2001.

PERIODICALS

Chicago Tribune, October 14, 2002, section 2, p. 7.

New York Times, October 14, 2002, p. A19.

Times (London, England), October 14, 2002.

Washington Post, October 14, 2002, p. B7.