Harbaugh, William Henry 1920–2005

OBITUARY NOTICE—See index for CA sketch: Born January 16, 1920, in Newark, NJ; died of liver failure April 28, 2005, in Charlottesville, VA. Historian, educator, and author. Harbaugh was a University of Virginia professor emeritus and noted scholar of the life and accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt. Initially hoping to become a professional baseball player, he trained with the St. Louis Cardinals for four weeks before he was dropped from the team. Harbaugh then attended the University of Alabama, where he graduated in 1942. Having also been in the ROTC, he enlisted in the U.S. Army and was made a lieutenant in the 62nd AAA Gun Battalion. He saw action in northern Africa, Sicily, and France, helping to liberate several Nazi concentration camps toward the end of World War II. Returning home with a Croix de Guerre pinned to his chest, he resolved to further his education. He earned a master's degree from Columbia University in 1947, followed by a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1954. Harbaugh's academic career began at the University of Connecticut, where he taught from 1946 to 1961, with the exception of several years spent at graduate school and one year as an instructor at the University of Maryland. During the early 1960s, he was a professor and chair of the history department at Bucknell University. While there, Harbaugh became involved in the protest movement against Vietnam, participating in a peace march in 1965 and asserting that Vietnam was not a just war. The fact that he was a decorated veteran lent much weight to his words. He left Bucknell in 1966 to join the University of Virginia faculty, where he remained until his 1990 retirement. A beloved teacher who was especially well liked by his Ph.D. candidate students, Harbaugh became a noted biographer. His Power and Responsibility: The Life and Times of Theodore Roosevelt (1961) is still considered an important and relevant biography, and his Lawyer's Lawyer: The Life of John W. Davis was nominated for the National Book Award. In his later life, Harbaugh strove to preserve the memory of Teddy Roosevelt by helping to raise funds to save Pine Knot, the former vacation home of the president. For this work, he was awarded the Distinguished Service Medal from the Theodore Roosevelt Association in 2005.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Richmond Times-Dispatch (Richmond, VA), May 4, 2005.

Washington Post, May 1, 2005, p. C6.

ONLINE

University of Oregon Web site, http://www.uoregon.edu/ (May 4, 2005).