J. Russell Major (1921–1998)

Major graduated from the Virginia Military Institute in 1942 and went on to serve with great distinction in the U.S. Army during World War II. He was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry, a Bronze Star, and the Purple Heart with two Oak Leaf Clusters.

Following the war, he attended Princeton University on the G.I. Bill and received the PhD in 1949. Major then joined the history faculty at Emory University, and remained there until his retirement in 1990. His service there included three terms as departmental chair, and in 1980, he was named Charles Howard Candler Professor of Renaissance History.

Major wrote 10 books, including Representative Government in Early Modern France and From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles and Estates, which received the Leo Gershoy Award of the AHA for outstanding work in 17th- and 18th-century European history. Shortly before his death he completed work on a memoir of his experiences in the war, The Memoirs of an Artillery Forward Observer, 1944–1945. He also wrote numerous scholarly articles, including "The Crown and the Aristocracy in Renaissance France," for the AHR.