Richard William Leopold, a professor emeritus in American history from Northwestern University, and a life member of the AHA, died Thursday, November 23, 2006, in Evanston, Illinois. He was 94. Leopold, a diplomatic historian, was the author of The Growth of American Foreign Policy: A History, Elihu Root and the Conservative Tradition, Robert Dale Owen: A Biography, and, with Stanley Cohen and Arthur S. Link, the Problems in American History series. His biography of Robert Dale Owen won the AHA’s John H. Dunning Prize for best book on a United States history subject in 1940. Leopold served as president of the Organization of American Historians in 1976-77 and is the namesake of the OAH’s Richard W. Leopold Prize, given biennially to recognize the best book written by a historian connected with federal, state, or municipal government. Leopold was also a founding contributor to the National History Center.

A full obituary will be forthcoming in Perspectives.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.