Synopses & Reviews
Ben Procter, a native Texan, was born in Temple on February 21, 1927. An excellent student, he was graduated from Austin High School in 1945 and enlisted and served in the U.S. Navy for fifteen months. Upon discharge in September 1946 he entered The University of Texas that same fall. Ben played end on the Longhorn football team and earned a place on an All-America football teamand a Phi Beta Kappa key in the same semester. His athletic record included gaining 1,382 yards for an average of 16.8 yards per catch and scoring thirteen touchdowns. In 1949, Bens Longhorns defeated the TCU Horned Frogs in no small part because he caught more passes and scored more touchdowns than any player had done in any game in Southwest Conference history to that time.
Ben graduated from The University of Texas in 1951 and the following year also received his masters degree from the same institution. He played professional football with the Los Angeles Rams until injured, then enrolled in the graduate program in history at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Frederick Merk directed Bens dissertation, a biography of John H. Reagan, but Ben also studied with such outstanding scholars as Samuel Eliot Morison and Arthur Schlesinger, Sr., and Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., and received the Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1961. Ben joined the faculty at Texas Christian University in 1957.
Synopsis
In Memory of Ben H. Procter, a beloved mentor and friend who taught many people most of what they know about the practice of history, and even more about life.
Synopsis
Never Without Honor features essays written in Memory of Ben H. Procter, a beloved mentor and friend who taught many people most of what they know about the practice of history, and even more about life. Historians, particularly those who practice their craft through appointments in higher education, fall into distinct categories: those known for publications; those who concentrate on teaching; and those who excel in teaching and sharing the yield of their research with others through spoken and written words. Ben Procters record places him firmly in the latter camp. His book, Not Without Honor: The Life of John H. Reagan, published by The University of Texas Press in 1962, remains the definitive biography of this Texas surveyor, political leader, and postmaster general of the Confederacy.
About the Author
ARCHIE P. MCDONALD was the author or editor of more than forty books and monographs. He lived in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he was a Regents Professor of History and Community Liaison at Stephen F. Austin State University and a weekly commentator on Red River Radio.