Robert Roswell Palmer (1909-2002) served as Princeton’s eighth dean of the faculty from 1967 to 1968. Palmer was one of the most prominent American historians of the 20th century, serving in the public and private sectors.

Palmer had a reputation as one of the “most highly regarded American historians in European centers of learning.” His tenure as dean of the faculty came amidst a highly productive career and was cut short by his publishing obligations and “the consequences of so many years as a historian with all the professional involvements that go with them,” said Palmer himself.

A native of Chicago, Palmer earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago in 1931. Three years later, he received his doctorate from Cornell University. He spent a year as a fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies before joining the Princeton faculty in 1936.

Palmer was named an assistant professor in 1941. From 1943 to 1945, he was diverted from his academic position to serve the historical section of the United States Department of War, co-authoring two volumes of the history of the U.S. Army ground forces in World War II.

Palmer returned to Princeton in 1945, became a full professor in 1946, and was appointed the Dodge Professor of History in 1952, a role he held until 1963. Among his scholarly works, he authored the 900-page textbook “A History of the Modern World” in 1950. Eight subsequent editions have been published, and it became a staple learning tool in university history departments worldwide. He was named a senior fellow of the Humanities Council at Princeton during the 1957-58 academic year.

Palmer left Princeton in 1963 to serve as the first dean of the faculty of arts and sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

He returned to Princeton four years later when he was appointed dean of the faculty and rejoined the history department. Following his resignation as dean of the faculty, Palmer joined the history department at Yale in 1969, where he served until his retirement in 1977. After retiring, he returned to Princeton as a guest scholar at the Institute for Advanced Study and was an active publishing scholar into his 90s.

Written by Shane B. Black for the Office of the Dean of the Faculty.