Drawing upon a Bachelor of Arts from Mount Saint Paul College and a Master of Arts and Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Frederic J. Baumgartner, PhD, is an accomplished history educator who amassed 45 years in the academic sphere. He commenced his career as an assistant professor of history at Georgia College in 1972, holding the role for four years before starting his tenure in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. Beginning as an associate professor in 1976, he subsequently served as a full professor of history in 1985 and continued in that position until attaining emeritus status in 2017. During his career, he sat on numerous committees and organizations, including as vice president and president of the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Association, chair of the Faculty Senate Committee on Faculty Ethics and president of the Virginia Tech chapter of the American Association of University Professors. He earned a reputation as an international scholar, specializing in the studies of early modern France, military history, and the Reformation.
The author of nine books, 17 journal articles, seven book chapters, 56 encyclopedia entries, and 49 book reviews, Dr. Baumgartner received the Charles Smith Book Prize from the Southern Historical Association in 1989 for his acclaimed book “Henry II King of France,” published the preceding year. His extensive research has been funded with several grants and fellowships, including an early modern studies fellowship from the Sixteenth Century Society & Conference, a Newberry Library research fellow, and myriad research grants from the American Philosophical Society. As a testament to his success, he has garnered multiple accolades, such as a National Endowment for the Humanities Travel-to-Collections Award, the Dudley Award in the history of astronomy and the Pollack Award in the history of astronomy. The Virginia Social Science Association named him Historian of the Year in 2002. Likewise, he was presented with the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award and was named a Top Educator by Marquis Who’s Who in 2019, as well as named an Industry Leader in 2018.
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