Phillip Shaw Paludan

He was born January 26, 1938 in St. Cloud, MN, the son of Paul and Marguerite Shaw Paludan.

Phillip Shaw Paludan was a Professor of History and the Naomi B. Lynn Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield. One of the nation’s foremost authorities on Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War, he joined the faculty of the History program at UIS in 2001.

He received A.B. and M.A. degrees from Occidental College and his doctorate from the University of Illinois where he studied under Harold Hyman and Robert Johannsen. He taught at the University of Kansas for over thirty years, and held visiting appointments at Rutgers University and University College Dublin, Ireland, before being named Distinguished Chair in Lincoln Studies at UIS.

He is the author of four books on the Civil War era, studying constitutional thought of the age, guerrilla warfare, the impact of the war on northern society (A People’s Contest, The Union and Civil War 1861-1865, Harper & Row, 1988), and The Presidency of Abraham Lincoln (Kansas, 1994). He received the Lincoln Prize for his study of Lincoln’s presidency, as well as the Barondess Lincoln Award from the New York City Civil War Round Table. His numerous awards include post doctoral fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies, the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment foe the Humanities, and Harvard Law School. He has also received a Diploma of Honor from Lincoln Memorial University and an honorary doctorate from Lincoln College.

Professor Paludan was frequently invited to lecturer, speaking in the past year on “Lincoln and Democracy” at the University of Kansas and Ohio Northern University, and on “Lincoln and the Kansas Nebraska Act” at the University of Nebraska.

He was a board member of the Abraham Lincoln Association and a member of Westminster Presbyterian Church.

He is survived by his devoted wife Marty; two adoring daughters, Karin (husband, Drake) Sorey and Kirsten Paludan; step children, Jim Hammond, Brett Hammond, Jill Donatelli, and Cody Hammond; and five step grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday, August 5, 2007 at Westminster Presbyterian Church in Springfield, IL.

Memorial may be made to the Lincoln Legacy Lecture Series at the University of IL. at Springfield, UIF, One University Plaza, MS PAC 591, Springfield, IL 62703