Professor G. Thomas Edwards

Author of Tradition in a Turbulent Age: Whitman College 1925-1975

Professor Tom Edwards, the William Kirkman Professor of History Emeritus, served at Whitman College from 1964 until retirement in 1998. He taught a variety of classes in American history, especially the Civil War and the American West, receiving several distinguished teaching awards. In 1998 his former students established the G. Thomas Edwards Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship.

A scholar who serves as an important resource for the region, Edwards has published many book reviews and articles on reformers, women, politicians, and educators. He is coeditor of Experiences in a Promised Land and author of Sowing Good Seeds: The Northwest Suffrage Campaigns of Susan B. Anthony. In 1994 he received a Washington State Governor’s Writers Award for The Triumph of Tradition.

With his volumes of Whitman history completed, Edwards continues to write on other subjects. An article in which he discusses similarities between Walla Walla and Port Townsend between 1850 and 1900 is scheduled for publication in the Washington State Historical Society’s Columbia Magazine, and his current project is a comparison of the history of Whitman College, Willamette University, and Pomona College in the age of student activism.

Although retired from Whitman, Edwards has not left the classroom forever. This winter, he is at Portland State University teaching a class on the Civil War era.

About Tradition in a Turbulent Age.

The author's favorite Whitman figures.

Professor emeritus Tom Edwards, left, presents a copy of Tradition in a Turbulent Age to president Tom Cronin.