Richard William Leopold

Background

The second son of Harry Leopold, Senior, and Ethel Kimmelstiel, Richard Leopold grew up on the upper west side of Manhattan.

Education

He attended the Franklin School before attending Phillips Exeter Academy in 1926, where he graduated cum laude in 1929. He then attended Princeton University, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with highest honors in 1933. After Princeton, he studied at Harvard under Arthur M. Schlesinger, Senior, receiving his master"s degree in 1934 and a Doctor of Philosophy in 1938.

Career

During World World War II, he was commissioned as a naval officer and assigned to the Office of Naval Records and Library in Washington, where he devised system to organize the reports and materials relating to the ongoing naval operations. After his release from active service in the United States Navy, he returned to Harvard University for two years and then joined the history faculty of Northwestern University in 1948, where he spent the remainder of his career. In 1963, he was appointed William Smith Mason Professor of History at Northwestern and served in that position until he retired 31 August 1980.

Among the prominent students whom Leopold influenced in their careers were Senator.

George McGovern (Doctorate-South Dakota), former Republican Richard Gephardt (Doctorate-Missouri), Republican

James Kolbe (R-Arizona), former assistant secretary of state Phyllis East. Oakley, historian John Morton Blum, journalist Georgie Anne Geyer, and television and motion picture director Garry Marshall. Leopold served on numerous governmental advisory committees, including the Secretary of the Navy"s Advisory Committee on Naval History, The Department of State Historical Advisory Committee, The Department of the Army Historical Advisory Committee, Atomic Energy Commission"s Historical Advisory Committee, Central Intelligence Agency Historical Review Panel and Library of Congress.

He was president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations in 1970 and of the Organization of American Historians in 1976.

In 1990, former students of Professor Leopold"s established the annual Leopold Lectureship at Northwestern in his honor. In 1997, Northwestern University endowed the Leopold Professorship in American history.

Achievements

• In 1984, the Organization of American Historians established the Richard W. Leopold Prize, which is awarded biannually.

Works

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  • Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition

    (Thee library of American Biography is a new series of bio...)

  • Robert Dale Owen - A Biography

    (Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating bac...)

  • Robert Dale Owen A Biography

    (This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923. T...)

  • The Growth Of American Foreign Policy: A History

    (An examination of the growth of US foreign policy. Maps a...)

  • Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition

    (PAPERBACK)

  • Robert Dale Owen: A Biography Harvard Historical Studies Volume XLV
  • The Growth of American Foreign Policy, a History.
  • Elihu Root and the conservative tradition (Library of American biography)
  • Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition by Richard William Leopold (1954-05-03)
  • Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition Later Printing edition by Leopold, Richard William (1954) Paperback
  • The Growth of American Foreign Policy

Politics

The book based on his dissertation, Robert Dale Owen (Harvard University Press, 1940), a study of the Indiana congressman and utopian socialist, won the John H. Dunning Prize of the American Historical Association.

Membership

He was a member of the Editorial Advisory Committee for the Papers of Woodrow Wilson and of the board of directors for the Harry South. Truman Library Institute.