The founding director of the Virginia Center for Civil War Studies passed away on Nov. 2 after a long illness. During his 44-year career at Virginia Tech, he taught more than 25,000 students, occasionally including three generations of the same families.
Sad news out of Virginia this morning. After my own teachers and professors, Dr. Robertson is the historian probably most responsible for my becoming a historian. Reading his biographies of A.P. Hill and Stonewall Jackson in high school put me on a trajectory I‘d never envisioned and changed my life. Few books I’ve read before or since have come close to the impact his Jackson book made on me. His brilliance and dedication and influence on the field is almost beyond comparison. RIP Dr. Bud.
“For fully six decades Bud Robertson was a dominant figure in his field, and a great encouragement to all who would study our turbulent past during the middle of the 19th century. Moreover, amid a conversation that can still become bitter and confrontational, his was a voice for reason, patience, and understanding… His voice is now sorely missed — and irreplaceable.”
