LAWRENCE KAPLAN

Lawrence Samuel Kaplan  
Distinguished American  historian and professor  Lawrence Samuel Kaplan was interred at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday, September 3, 2021. He passed away on April 10, 2020 in Delray Beach, Florida at the age of 95. He was a distinguished American diplomatic historian, professor, and prolific author. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts on October 28, 1924 to Jacob Copel Kaplan, a physician, and Julia (Starnfield) Kaplan. After Army combat service in the Philippines in World War II, Larry graduated from Colby College with a BA in 1947. He received an MA in 1948 and a PhD in history in 1951 from Yale University. He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Alpha Theta. At Yale he was a student of Samuel Flagg Bemis, a giant in the field of diplomatic history. Larry married Janice Eyges on September 5, 1948 in Chelsea Massachusetts. After lecturing at the University of Bridgeport in 1950, he joined the Historical Office of the Department of Defense in 1951, serving there until 1954. It was during his tenure in the Defense Department that Larry developed a significant interest in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), a subject on which he subsequently became the leading scholar. He joined the history faculty of Kent State University in 1954, where he served until his retirement in 1993. During his career at Kent State, he rose to the position of University Professor of History in recognition of his international reputation as a leading scholar in his field. In 1979 he founded the Lyman L. Lemnitzer Center for NATO and European Union Studies at Kent State, and served as its director until 1992. An exceptional teacher and lecturer, Larry received the Distinguished Service Award and Outstanding Teaching Award from the Ohio Academy of History. After retiring from Kent State, he moved to Rockville, Maryland and was a Professorial Lecturer in history at Georgetown University from 1993-2015. He authored fourteen major books and scores of articles on American history, many about NATO, and American politico-military history; others dealt with the early national period of American history. He directed 28 PhD dissertations, and 44 Masters theses at Kent State. He was awarded three Fulbright lectureships, and was a visiting lecturer at several foreign and American universities. He was a founder of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR), and its President in 1981. He was also a member of the Society of Historians of Early American History, and its President in 1991. Larry was a member of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians, and the Cosmos Club of Washington, DC. He was predeceased by his wife of 72 years, Janice, who was interred with him at Arlington National Cemetery. He is survived by his son, Joshua (Cristina) Kaplan of Westminster, Colorado, and daughter, Deborah Kaplan of Delray Beach, Florida.