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Acknowledgments

Showing appreciation is an opportunity to reflect on friends and colleagues whose efforts have made this work possible. As the Preface underscored, the late Robert Ferrell contributed the most. Carolyn (Ferrell) Burgess, Mr. Ferrell’s daughter, along with her husband Lorin, indulged my exploration and opened their home and life to me as I sought background information and photographs on her father and family. Historians Michael Brooks and Gregory Pfitzer read the entire manuscript, provided insightful suggestions, and supported the project; efforts like these remind us of what true mentorship continues to be, without expectation of reward. Their positive feedback, along with James Gifford at Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, got the manuscript through the editorial doors of several publishers. Other historians, academics, and constructive critics improved the end-product by their engagement with various chapters, most notably, historians David Brown (Elizabethtown College) and Eric Sandweiss (Indiana University) and social science education professor Ronald VanSickle (University of Georgia). Professor Randy Mills (Oakland City University) shared sage publishing advice. Nick Cullather (Indiana University), a former student at IU, reflected on stories of Ferrell’s inspiration and later-day professional frustration. Amy Spungen (Editing and Writing Service), smoothed the initial draft of chapter 2 and celebrated the drama I sought to convey in storytelling. San Antonio’s Jim Lowry, Jr. provided significant legal advice while I worked my way through publishing contracts.

Other Ferrell family members, friends, and beneficiaries of his efforts deserve recognition for sharing their insights about his personality, ideology, hard-driven nature, kindness, angst, relationships, and much more: Dr. Robert Bryant, Charles Blankenship, A. Lovell Elliot, Dennis Ferrell, Terry Feehan, and David Frasier, to name several writ large in my notes.

Institutions and their representatives were also integral to the completion of the project. Generous guidance from Sarah and Jody Mitchell at the Lilly Library at Indiana University helped me navigate Ferrell’s Papers and the reading room challenges and capture camera-ready images. Erika Dowell and Joel Silver, associate director and director of the Lilly Library, respectively, made the archives readily accessible and user-friendly for researchers. Other institutional representatives of great value to the project included Verna and John Rose and Jim Conrad, at the Waterville Historical Society; Lisa Alsee, at the Lakewood Public Library; Martha Gubernath, at the Lakewood United Methodist Church; Nanci Young, at Smith College Archives; Tiffany Tully, at Anthony Wayne High School and Beth Walker and Jenean Carlson, at Lakewood High School and City School District Office; Connor Wagner, a former Scout at Boy Scout Council #440 in Cleveland. Of import too were the efforts of Eric Kuntzman, editor, and his assistant, Alexandra Rallo, at Lexington Books, for shepherding this project to completion.

Unfortunately, not all who merit attention for their efforts on the book’s behalf may be identified, so let me thank them even as they remain anonymous. This, along with the other shortcomings in the book, are mine alone.