WEIGLEY, Russell F(rank) 1930-2004

OBITUARY NOTICE—

See index for CA sketch: Born July 2, 1930, in Reading, PA; died of a heart attack March 3, 2004, in Philadelphia, PA. Educator and author. Weigley was an award-winning author of military history books and a professor emeritus at Temple University. After earning his bachelor's at Albright College in 1952, he completed a master's and doctorate in history at the University of Pennsylvania in 1953 and 1956 respectively. Weigley, who was inspired to study American history by a childhood visit to the Gettysburg battlefield, then embarked on a teaching career, first at the University of Pennsylvania, where he taught from 1956 to 1958, then at the Drexel Institute of Technology in Philadelphia. In 1962, he joined the Temple University faculty as an associate professor, rising to the position of distinguished university professor of history in 1985, and retiring as professor emeritus in 1998. Although he never glorified war in any way, Weigley was fascinated by military history, penning several award winning books including Eisenhower's Lieutenants: The Campaign of France and Germany, 1944-1945 (1981), which won the Atheneum of Philadelphia Special Award and was nominated for an American Book Award, The Age of Battles: The Quest for Decisive Warfare from Breitenfeld to Waterloo (1991), which won the Samuel Eliot Morison Award from the American Military Institute and the Outstanding Book Award for non-American history from the Society for Military History, and A Great Civil War: A Military and Political History, 1861-1865 (2000), which received the prestigious Lincoln Prize. Weigley also earned critical praise for such books as History of the United States Army (1967; enlarged edition, 1984) and The American Way of War: A History of American Military Strategy and Policy (1973). A former president of the American Military Institute, Weigley was also a member of many other history organizations, such as the Organization of American Historians, the Society of Military History, the Society of American Historians, and the Pennsylvania Historical Association. Most recently, he had been on an advisory board to help design the National World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.

OBITUARIES AND OTHER SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Los Angeles Times, March 11, 2004, p. B13.

New York Times, March 12, 2004, p. C12.

Washington Post, March 10, 2004, p. B6.