He was born on November 11, 1928, in
Wichita, Kansas. He obtained a
bachelor's and
master's degree from
Wichita State University in 1950 and 1951, respectively. In 1955, he earned a PhD from the
University of Chicago. His dissertation, entitled
A Frontier State at War: Kansas, 1861-1865, won honorable mention in the
American Historical Association's Albert J. Beveridge Competition, after which it was published in 1958 as a monograph by
Cornell University Press. From 1960 to 1991, he taught history at the
Western Michigan University . He died on November 14, 2014, in
Columbus, Ohio. == Awards ==