Walter Havighurst


Walter Edwin Havighurst was a critic, novelist, and literary and social historian of the Midwest. He was a professor of English at Miami University.

History

The son of Lawrence College professors Freeman Alfred Havighurst and Winifred Weter, Havighurst was born in Appleton, Wisconsin and grew up in the Fox River Valley. Havighurst attended Ohio Wesleyan University, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree, and the University of Denver. He attended King's College London from 1925 to 1926, obtained a bachelor of sacred theology from Boston University in 1928 and a master's degree from Columbia University in 1928. Havighurst was awarded honorary degrees from Lawrence College, Ohio Wesleyan University, Marietta College, and Miami University.
Havighurst joined the faculty of Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1928 and served interim terms on the faculties of Connecticut College, the University of Colorado and the University of British Columbia. In 1968, Miami named him Regents Professor of English Emeritus. He retired as research professor emeritus in 1969. In 1970, the Walter Havighurst Special Collections at Miami University was established and named in his honor.

Personal life

Havighurst married Marion Boyd, a poet and writer, in 1930 and resided in Oxford, Ohio. She died in 1974. He remained in Oxford until the last few years of his life when he moved to Richmond, Indiana to live with relatives, where he died of heart disease.
Havighurst's brother, Robert J. Havighurst, was a professor at the University of Chicago.

Works

Havighurst was the author of over 30 books, including Pier 17 and Annie Oakley of the Wild West. His writing earned awards from the Friends of American Writers, the American Association for State and Local History and the Rockefeller Foundation. River Road to the West received the American History Prize of the Society of Midland Authors.
A major bequest from Havighurst created the Havighurst Center for Russian and Post-Soviet Studies at Miami University upon his death.

Published books