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Clarence L. Ver Steeg, a distinguished scholar in early American history and a member of the American Antiquarian Society since 1972, died in Evanston, Illinois, on July 2, 2007. A native of Orange City, Iowa, he joined the U.S. Army Air Force in 1942, serving as navigator on a number of combat missions in the Pacific theater during World War II. He accumulated more than four hundred hours of flight experience, receiving the Air Medal with three oak leaf clusters and five battle stars.

In 1943 Professor Ver Steeg received a bachelor’s degree in absentia from Morningside College in Orange City. After his discharge from military service, he enrolled at Columbia University, where he earned a master’s degree in political science in 1946 and a doctorate in history in 1950. At that time he joined the history faculty at Northwestern University, remaining there for his entire career.

During that long period of service at Northwestern, he achieved a distinguished record as a teacher, scholar, and central figure in shaping the academic program at the university, especially in expanding its academic program in graduate studies. He headed a Faculty Planning Committee that in the 1960s formulated a program for increasing emphasis on graduate education and research and expansion of its library. A lounge on the library’s third floor was named after him in recognition of his great contribution to its planning and construction. In 1975 he became Dean of Graduate Studies, serving for eleven years, after which he returned to teaching until his retirement in 1992. Colleagues and friends considered his influence essential in making Northwestern University an elite institution of higher education, and he continued to be consulted on matters pertaining to the university even after he retired.

He also served in 1959 as visiting professor at Harvard University, where he was the first senior member of the Center for the Study of Liberty in America. In 1966 he lectured on American history at the Summer Institute of Stanford University at Alpbach, Austria. In addition, he served three three-year terms on the Council of the then–Institute of Early American History and Culture, 1961–1964, 1968–1971, and 1971–1974.

These activities, demanding as they were, did not prevent his becoming an accomplished scholar. In addition to publishing numerous articles, book reviews, and monographs, he received the Albert J. Beveridge Prize of the American Historical Association in 1952 for his study Robert Morris, Revolutionary Financier, published by the University of Pennsylvania Press. He can be counted as one of a group of scholars who from the 1950s and 1960s achieved a revival and expansion in the study of early American history.

In recognition of his contributions, Northwestern University established the Clarence L. Ver Steeg Professorship in the Arts and Sciences. Professor Ver Steeg and and his wife endowed the Dorothy Ann and Clarence L. Ver Steeg Distinguished Research Fellow Award.

Thad W. Tate
Institute Director Emeritus