Ronald H. Spector

Ronald Spector passed away on Thursday, March 26th following a battle with cancer. He was at home and surrounded by family. Ron was born in Pittsburgh in 1943 and is survived by his wife of over 55 years and fellow Pittsburgher, Dianne as well as his sons Daniel (Amy) and Jonathan (Molly), four grandchildren, Noah, Maisie, Hannah and Benji, sister Carol and brother Richard.

Ron received his B.A. from Johns Hopkins and PhD in history from Yale University. After completing his PhD in 1967, he was promptly drafted where he served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1967 to 1969 including thirteen months in Vietnam. He was later commissioned in the Marine Corps Reserve and retired as a Lieutenant Colonel.

Ron taught for two years at LSU then came to Washington, DC to work at the U.S. Army Center of Military History. He also served as Director of Naval History, from 1986 to 1989 the first civilian (and the first Marine) to hold this position. From 1990 until his retirement in 2020 he was a Professor of History and International Relations at George Washington University.

Ron was the author of eight books, the best known of which is Eagle Against the Sun: The American War With Japan which won the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Prize and was a New York Times Bestseller. Over 40 years after its publication, it is still considered the definitive one-volume history of WWII's Pacific Theater. He was a Fulbright Visiting Professor in India, Singapore and Israel. He also taught in Japan, the Naval Academy and the Army War College.

He will be deeply missed by his family, friends, and generations of students he mentored.