William J. Bouwsma
William J. Bouwsma ( born November 22, 1923 in Ann Arbor, Michigan; † March 2, 2004 in Berkeley, California ) was an American historian and university teacher whose scientific work is mainly focused on the Renaissance in Europe.
Life
Bouwsma came from a family with Dutch roots. He grew up in Lincoln, the capital of the U.S. state of Nebraska, on. In 1943, he received his bachelor's degree at Harvard University in Cambridge. He then served three years in the United States Air Force and received his PhD in 1950 at Harvard.
Academic career
Until 1957 Bouwsma taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign, before he received a professorship at the Faculty of History of the University of California, Berkeley in 1957. There he remained until his retirement with an interruption from 1969 to 1971, where he taught at his alma mater. In the years 1967-1969 he was in Berkeley Chancellor of the University, responsible for academic affairs.
Honors
In 1978 he was president of the American Historical Association, based in Washington DC has.