Kenneth A. Lockridge

1940 - 2024

Kenneth A. Lockridge

October 2, 1940 - August 26, 2024

Kenneth A. Lockridge, Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Montana, passed away peacefully on August 26, 2024, in Visby, Sweden. He was predeceased by his parents, Jack Lockridge and Mildred Lockridge, and by his sister, Joan Lukenbill, all of California. Ken leaves behind his loving wife, Helena Hoas; his daughter, Katherine; his son, Kristoffer (Martina); five granddaughters: Aleana, Sophia, Astrid, Miranda, and Disa; mother-in-law, Karin Hoas; brother-in-law, Torleif Hoas (Isabelle); nieces, nephews, friends, colleagues, and mentees who love him and will miss him.

Before joining the UM faculty in 1991, Ken served as a history professor at the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois, Chicago. He was a prolific scholar during his 45-year career, producing numerous books and articles celebrated for their penetrating assessments of early American life. His first book, A New England Town: The First Hundred Years (1970), is widely considered a landmark work of history. It not only brought much-needed understanding of a taproot of American democracy-the New England town. It also became a seminal text of the "new social history," the transformative move among historians to study the everyday lives of ordinary people. Ken's work continues to be read and studied by admiring historians and graduate students. When not crafting scholarship of great impact or reveling in the exchange of ideas with colleagues, students, and friends, Ken enjoyed fly fishing, music, and skiing. After his retirement from UM in 2009, he and his wife Helena settled in Visby, Gotland, Sweden to be near their son and his family.

Gifts in his memory can be made to the UM History Department. Checks can be mailed to the University of Montana Foundation, P.O. Box 7159, Missoula, MT, 59807-7159, or friends may give online at www.SupportUM.org/give with a comment that the gift is in memory of Ken Lockridge.