T._R._Fehrenbach
T. R. Fehrenbach
American historian
Theodore Reed "T. R." Fehrenbach, Jr. (January 12, 1925 – December 1, 2013) was an American historian, columnist, and the former head of the Texas Historical Commission (1987-1991).[1] He graduated from Princeton University in 1947[2] with a degree in modern languages ("he never pursued graduate study or held a faculty post") [3]and wrote more than twenty books, including the bestseller Lone Star: A History of Texas and Texans[4] and This Kind of War, about the Korean War. Senator John McCain called this book “perhaps the best book ever written on the Korean War”.[5] Secretary of Defense James Mattis said “There’s a reason I recommended T.R. Fehrenbach’s book...that we all pull it out and read it one more time.”[6][7][8]
Although he served as a U.S. Army officer during the Korean War, his own service is not mentioned in the book. Fehrenbach also wrote for Esquire, The Atlantic, The Saturday Evening Post, and The New Republic.[9] He wrote popular histories of Texas,[10] Mexico, and the Comanche people.[5] For almost 30 years, he wrote a weekly column on Sundays for the San Antonio Express-News. On August 23, 2013, T.R. Fehrenbach announced that he would retire from writing columns because of declining health.[11] T.R. Fehrenbach died of a congenital heart defect at Northeast Baptist Hospital in San Antonio on December 1, 2013.[12][13]
