1933-2020; Faculty in the UND History Department from 1969 until 1999

Beringer, Richard E. (1933-2020)

"Richard E. Beringer, Grand Forks, North Dakota passed away on February 19, 2020. He was born on December 29, 1933, the son of William and Martha (Wupper) Beringer in Madison, Wisconsin. He graduated from North High School in Sheboygan, Wisconsin, in 1952 and went to Lawrence College, Appleton, Wisconsin, graduating Phi Beta Kappa in 1956. He completed a Masters Degree at Northwestern University in 1957 before serving in the Air Force as a Personnel Officer , 1957-60. He returned to Northwestern to work on a Ph.D. in History. He then taught a year at Oshkosh State University in Wisconsin. He married Luise Anne Templin in 1964. In 1965 they moved to California where he taught at Hayward State University. In 1968 he received a grant to learn documentary editing, working on the Jefferson Davis Papers at Rice University, Houston, Texas. In 1969, they moved to Grand Forks, North Dakota; where he taught in the Department of History at the University of North Dakota, was Chair of the department from 1993-97, and retired in 1999.

In 1979-1980 he spent a year as co-editor and author of the introduction for vol. 4 of The Papers of Jefferson Davis and in 1994 during the spring/summer semester he taught at the University of Augsburg in Germany on a Fulbright Travel Award. He was designated Chester Fritz Distinguished Professor at the University of North Dakota in 1988 and twice received the Jefferson Davis Award of the Confederate Memorial Literary Society “for distinguished research and writing on the period of the Confederate States of America”

He was the coauthor of Jefferson Davis: Confederate President; Why the South Lost the Civil War; Historical Analysis: Contemporary Approaches to Clio’s Craft; The Anatomy of the Confederate Congress: A Study of the Influences of Member Characteristics on Legislative Voting Behavior; and a contributor to On the Road to Total War: The American Civil War and the German Wars of Unification, 1861-1871.

He is survived by his wife, Luise, children, David, Middleton, Wisconsin and Jeffrey (Lisa), Carmel, Indiana, two grandchildren, Matthew and Anna, and a brother, William (Marilyn), Atlanta, Georgia. He was preceded in death by his parents and one brother."

Source: Grand Forks Herald

Military History - Civil War
University of North Dakota - Faculty