In Memoriam: William E. Leuchtenburg GSAS’51, Professor of History, Expert on the U.S. Presidency and FDR

William E. Leuchtenburg GSAS’51, a prize-winning historian widely admired for his authoritative writings on the U.S. presidency and the reigning scholar on Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, died on Jan. 28, 2025, at his home in Chapel Hill, N.C. He was 102.

A beloved and respected professor at Columbia and then at the University of North Carolina, he also was a prolific author, with a publishing career that spanned more than 70 years, beginning with Flood Control Politics: The Connecticut River Valley Problem, 1927–1950 (1953) and ending with Patriot Presidents: George Washington to John Quincy Adams (2024). Leuchtenburg profoundly influenced how scholars and the public understand the political, social and economic dynamics of 20th-century America. His ability to blend meticulous scholarship with engaging writing made his works accessible not only to academics, but also to general readers.

Leuchtenburg was born on Sept. 28, 1922, in Ridgewood, which straddles the Brooklyn-Queens border, the first child of a German-American father, William, who was a post office worker, and an Irish immigrant mother, Lauretta C. (née McNamara), who grew up in Hell’s Kitchen. His fascination with politics was triggered when his parents allowed him to stay up to listen to a radio broadcast of the 1932 Democratic National Convention; he tracked delegate votes for FDR with the same attention he kept for baseball scorecards. At 12, he earned enough money tutoring neighborhood kids to fund a nine-hour bus ride to Washington, D.C., where he had a “wide-eyed” tour of the White House, as well as visits to the Capitol and the recently built Supreme Court building.

In 1939, Leuchtenburg left Queens for Ithaca, N.Y., where he attended Cornell with support from State Regents scholarships and earnings from summer jobs. There, he got jobs cleaning test tubes and typing professors’ manuscripts via the National Youth Administration, an agency established under the New Deal.

After earning a B.A. in European history in 1943 and being inducted into Phi Beta Kappa, Leuchtenburg enrolled at GSAS, with a focus on modern American history; he completed a Ph.D. in 1951. After teaching at NYU, Smith College and Harvard, he returned to Columbia as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History. Across the next 30 years, Leuchtenburg developed a national reputation as a leading expert on FDR’s presidency; he was presented an honorary degree by Columbia in 2008.

In 1982, Leuchtenburg relocated to work at the University of North Carolina; he taught history for two more decades and retired as the William Rand Kenan, Jr., Distinguished Professor. He continued to serve on the UNC Press Board of Governors and perform other roles for the university. UNC-Chapel Hill presented him the honorary degree of Humane Letters in 2021.

Leuchtenburg was a visiting professor at Cornell, Harvard, the College of William & Mary, the University of Richmond and Bowdoin, among other universities, and held the Harmsworth Chair at the University of Oxford.

Of his many books, Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, 1932–1940 is deemed by many to be his most influential. It received both the Bancroft Prize and the Francis Parkman Prize when it was published in 1963. Fondly remembered by generations of students is The Perils of Prosperity (1958), which traces the history of the United States from WWI to the peak of the Great Depression. Other notable works include The Supreme Court Reborn: The Constitutional Revolution in the Age of Roosevelt (1995), The FDR Years: On Roosevelt and His Legacy (1997), The American President: From Teddy Roosevelt to Bill Clinton (2015) and In the Shadow of FDR (1983), which was periodically updated, as it explored how FDR’s successors attempted to shun and/or embrace his legacy. At the time of his death, Leuchtenburg was working on a new edition that would have included President Biden.

For more than four decades, Leuchtenburg collaborated with Ken Burns on documentaries, including the landmark miniseries on baseball, one of Leuchtenburg’s enduring passions, and The Roosevelts; he appeared on camera in two of Burns’ works. He was enlisted by landscape architect Lawrence Halprin to select the quotations carved into the granite of the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Memorial in Washington, D.C., which opened in 1997. He also was an election analyst for NBC News and provided commentary on presidential inaugurations for PBS and CBS.

Leuchtenburg was president of the American Historical Association, the Organization of American Historians and the Society of American Historians, a trifecta honor that only he and Eric Foner ’63, GSAS’69 have accomplished.

Leuchtenburg’s first marriage, to Jean McIntire, ended in divorce. In 1985, he married Jean Anne Williams, who became his editor and assistant; she survives him. He is also survived by his sons, Thomas, Christopher and Joshua LAW ’84, and stepson, Christopher Williams; their spouses, Lucy, Laurie, Tamara BUS’85 and Penny Rodrick-Williams; six grandchildren; two step-grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.