Search

Heather T. Frazer (1940 – 2016) was a professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. After graduating from Connecticut College for her undergraduate studies, she attained a M.A. and Ph.D. from Duke University in South Asian History. In 1971, she became the first female faculty member in the FAU history department where she taught for 35 years before retiring in 2006. During her tenure she served as Department Chair and Director of Graduate Studies. She also pioneered the study of women's history at FAU, helping establish the Women's Studies program, which is now the Center for Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies. Dr. Frazer taught courses in women's history, modern Britain and British Empire, Indian history, and oral history. She researched and published in the fields of India and women's history, and co-authored with her colleague, Dr. John O'Sullivan, We Have Just Begun to Not Fight: An Oral History of Conscientious Objectors in Civilian Public Service during World War II (1996). In 1988, she received a Fulbright Fellowship and spent part of the year in India. In 1990, she was selected FAU's Distinguished Teacher of the Year, the highest teaching award conferred by the university, and one selected exclusively by the students. Upon her retirement she was named Professor Emerita of History.

The papers of Dr. James A. Leitch Wright, Jr., a historian who taught at Florida State University from 1968 to 1986. Wright received acclaim for his Colonial American research. His papers include correspondence, research materials, and manuscripts for his publications related to Southern Native American tribes.

The collection includes documents pertaining to the biographical research about Dr. James Hall, and the efforts of several Jacksonville residents to recognized Dr. Hall and to publicize the historical importance of his burial site. The collection includes biographical materials, correspondence, newspaper clippings, research notes, minutes of meetings, maps, periodicals, presentationsand speeches by Dr. G. Dekle Taylor, and photographs. The majority of the correspondence, presentations, and documents pertain to Dr. Taylor's role and activities from 1972 to 1984, principal among them a 1974 co-authored article about Hall in the Journal of the Florida Medical Association.

John D. Early is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Early joined the faculty of the Anthropology Department in 1969. He was chair of the department for several years and retired in 1993. His educational background includes a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy and Master of Arts in Social Philosophy from St. Louis University, a Master of Arts in Theology from Woodstock College (a Jesuit Seminary), a Master of Arts in Sociology from Fordham University, and a PhD in Anthropology-Sociology from Harvard University (1965). Dr. Early began his career as a Jesuit priest, although he resigned from the priesthood in 1969. As a member of the Harvard-Chiapas Research Project, he went to Zinacantán to study Maya worldview and its Catholic elements. Later, his interest turned to demographic research as a planning basis for the literacy, cooperative and health programs in which he was involved among the Maya in Guatemala. It was also intended to bring to national and international attention to the severe malnutrition and high mortality among the Maya primarily as a result of social injustice. This interest then turned into fulltime research on the evolution of human population dynamics: for hunter-gathering groups as exemplified by the Agta in the Philippines, for tribal groups as exemplified by the Yanomami in Brazil, for peasants by the Maya in Mexico and Guatemala.

John O'Sullivan (1939-2000) was a professor of history at Florida Atlantic University. Dr. O'Sullivan attended Fordham University for his undergraduate studies and then Columbia University where he attained a M.A. and Ph.D. After graduating in 1971, he came to Florida Atlantic University where he served as chair of the History Department (1975-1978) and devoted his entire academic career. Dr. O'Sullivan received numerous research fellowships including the American Philosophical Society, the American Historical Association, and the Sloan Foundation.