Historian, influential campus leader E. David Cronon dies at age 82

E. David Cronon, an influential and revered former dean of the College of Letters and Sciences and history professor for more than four decades at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, died early this morning (Dec. 5) after a brief illness. He was 82.

Cronon led the university’s largest college from 1974-1988 and is widely credited for developing and strengthening many L&S programs, including Afro-American Studies, Women’s Studies, anthropology, computer sciences and Slavic languages. He was a professor of history at UW–Madison since 1962 and served as the department chair from 1966-69.

Cronon’s name is synonymous with the university’s own history, having served as a senior author of the University History Project throughout the 1990s, as well as co-author of UW–Madison history volumes covering 1925-1945 and the post-World War II period through 1971. These two UW Press volumes, co-authored with John Jenkins, stand as the definitive history of campus during two of its most dynamic eras.

“E. David Cronon left a large imprint on his department, the College of Letters and Science and UW–Madison,” says Gary Sandefur, current L&S dean. “His role as a leader and educational innovator produced strong faculty and strong departments, created programs in new fields such as Women’s Studies, and changed the way we approach managing a large liberal arts college.”

Phil Certain, a former dean of Letters & Sciences from 1989-2000, says that under Cronon’s leadership, he presided over many faculty hires, who collectively “became the core of excellence that we have achieved in recent years.” Cronon also created the university’s first academic planning council to oversee the development of academic programs.

Certain adds of Cronon: “It is difficult to think of any single individual in recent memory who has given more high-quality service to the College of Letters and Science, or has had a greater impact on its future and consequently that of UW–Madison as a whole. He was a true campus citizen and will be sorely missed.”

During his time as dean, Cronon was also responsible for new initiatives such as adopting computer technology for research and teaching (a first in that era), and in actively recruiting minority faculty and students. In 1987, he postponed retirement as dean for a year at the request of new Chancellor Donna Shalala, who wanted to learn from his long association with the campus.

Cronon had long been an advocate for focusing greater resources and energy on undergraduate education, and that priority became a signature of Shalala’s tenure.

Cronon served on the Board of Curators for the Wisconsin State Historical Society from 1964-1990, and served as its president from 1970-73. He was also one of the first eight American professors involved in a Fulbright teaching exchange in 1972 between to U.S. and the former Soviet Union. Later, in 1988, he would lead negotiations on a formal UW–Madison exchange agreement with Moscow State University.

His research expertise focused on 20th century American political history, a field in which he was trained as a graduate student at UW–Madison in the late 1940s and early 1950s-the period during which he began his long association with the university. One of his most influential books, “Black Moses,” chronicled the history of prominent Black Nationalist Marcus Garvey and his leadership of the Universal Negro Improvement Association. It was for many years the all-time best-selling volume published by the University of Wisconsin Press. Other books by Cronon include “Josephus Daniels in Mexico” (1960) and “The Political Thought of Woodrow Wilson” (1965).

David McDonald, chair of the history department, notes that Cronon had been an active participant in department life throughout his emeritus years, which began in 1993. David and his wife, Jean, have also been generous donors to the history department, McDonald says.

When Cronon received the Wisconsin Alumni Association University Service Award in 1989, he donated the $1,000 award to the UW Foundation. In 1991, he donated to the Foundation an 80-acre parcel of land in the Dane County Town of Vermont. In recent years, he also made several generous grants to the history department.

Cronon will be remembered by literally hundreds of new faculty and staff at UW–Madison for his participation in the “Wisconsin Idea Seminar” over the past two decades. This weeklong bus trip, sponsored by the Evjue Foundation, takes new UW–Madison employees across the state, introducing them to the cultural richness of Wisconsin and their responsibility to continue the Wisconsin Idea. Cronon delivered lectures on the bus about key parts of Wisconsin and university history.

One of Cronon’s sons, William – the current Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Chair of History, Geography, and Environmental Studies at UW–Madison- had joined his father in recent years on the trip. Cronon’s other son, Robert, lives in the Boston area, where he and his wife own a consulting business.

In a Nov. 1988 talk dubbed his “Last Lecture” before retiring as L&S dean, Cronon spoke about the importance of a liberal arts education: “In short, we are content if L&S graduates leave the college with the humility that comes from knowing how little, rather than how much, one knows. During their brief time with us, we want them to learn how to make the most of their talents, so they will spend the rest of their lives being unwilling to settle for anything less.”

A visitation will be held at the Cress Funeral Home at 3610 Speedway Road in Madison on Saturday, Dec. 9, from 3-6 p.m.; and there will be a memorial service at the First Unitarian Society at 900 University Bay Drive on Saturday, Dec. 16, at 11 a.m. In lieu of gifts, the family has asked that donations be made in Cronon’s honor to one of three institutions to which he was devoted: the UW–Madison History Department (through the UW Foundation); the Wisconsin Historical Society; or the Madison Opera.