John Avery Dittmer papers

DePauw University Associate Professor of History 1985-1998; DePauw University Professor of History 1998-2003.

Born in Seymour, Indiana on October 30, 1939, he was the son of the late J. Avery and Melba (Ahlbrand) Dittmer, and the oldest of six children. He was a graduate of Seymour High School and attended Indiana University, where he earned his bachelor's degree. Rather than attend his graduation ceremony, he instead married Ellen Tobey, who also elected to skip her graduation. John then returned to Indiana to study, where he earned his PhD in history. After completing his coursework, he moved his growing family to Mississippi, where he taught at Tougaloo College. While at Tougaloo, he completed the first of his three books, Black Georgia in the Progressive Era. In 1980, he took a one-year appointment at Brown University and relocated the family to Providence, Rhode Island. A one-year stint at Brown turned into 6 years of teaching and writing in Providence at both Brown and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where he began researching and writing his second book, Local People, a history of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi. Published in 1995, Local People earned several awards, including the Bancroft Award for American History. In 1985, John accepted a position at DePauw University where he taught History until retiring in 2003. His third book, The Good Doctors, was published in 2010. John was an athlete and a sports fan who loved playing tennis and golf and enjoyed walking outdoors. His passion was sports. He was a frequent attendee of DePauw women's basketball games, but his loyalty was always with his Alma Mater. He seldom missed an IU football game, and never missed an IU basketball game, both men's and women's. (Note: he would, however, sometimes turn off the games in frustration.) He and his wife Ellen enjoyed travel, especially to visit their daughter Julie and her family in Georgia, and their son Dave and his family in Maine. John Avery Dittmer passed away on July 19th, 2024, after a brief illness.