James Irvin "Bud" Robertson Jr. (July 18, 1930 – November 2, 2019) was an American historian on the American Civil War and professor at Virginia Tech.[1]
Robertson was born on July 18, 1930, and raised in Danville, Virginia.[2][3] He earned his bachelor's degree at Randolph-Macon College in 1955, and his master's degree and PhD. at Emory University in 1956 and 1959, respectively.[4] He earned his Litt.D. at Randolph-Macon in 1980.
Robertson authored 18 books including award-winners General A.P. Hill, Soldiers Blue and Gray, and Civil War! America Becomes One Nation. His biography Stonewall Jackson: The Man, The Soldier, The Legend, won eight national awards including the American Library Association's Best Book for Young Readers Award. Robertson also edited an additional 18 books on the Civil War.[9]
In 1961, President John F. Kennedy nominated Robertson to serve as the executive director of the U.S. Civil War Centennial Commission, a federal committee that was foundering under the pressures of regional differences and the emerging civil rights movement, unable to organize a dignified commemoration of the war era. Robertson worked effectively with 34 state and 100 local centennial committees to create a successful result.[5] Fifty years later, he was named a charter member of the Virginia Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War Commission.[8]
In 1963 he worked with David Mearns, director of the Library of Congress, to assist in the planning of Kennedy's funeral by researching the funeral of Abraham Lincoln, after which Kennedy's was patterned. Robertson and Mearns referenced Frank Leslie's Weekly and Harper's Weekly for details of the 1865 funeral that were used to transform the East Room of the White House.[10]
In 2011, Robertson wrote and hosted, with William C. "Jack" Davis, the 3-hour documentary "Virginia in the Civil War: A Sesquicentennial Remembrance".[11]
Along with his academic career, he spent several years as a faculty representative from Virginia Tech to the NCAA. Robertson's work as Faculty Chairman of Athletics and President of the Virginia Tech Athletic Association from 1979–91[14] helped Virginia Tech join the Big East athletic conference. Robertson was elected to the Virginia Tech Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.[15]
His main other contribution to college athletics was by being an Atlantic Coast Conference football referee for 16 years.[14]
^Sears, Stephen (16 March 1997). "Onward, Christian Soldier". Internet Archive. New York Times. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
^ ab"Biography". Virginia Tech. Retrieved 2011-05-06.
