Fletcher, Robert Samuel, 1900-1959

Robert S. Fletcher was born in Forestville, New York, on November 3, 1900. After graduating from Forestville Free Academy, Fletcher went on to study history at Oberlin College. Upon graduating he earned his living teaching at a high school in Michigan, until be enrolled in the doctoral program in history at Harvard University. At Harvard, Fletcher studied with Frederick Jackson Turner, Edward Channing, and Arthur M. Schlesinger, Sr. During these years he served as an Assistant in History at Harvard (1923-1924), an Instructor in History at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and an Assistant Professor of History at Tufts University (1926-1927). In 1925-1926 Fletcher was an Associate Agricultural Economist for the United States Department of Agriculture, where he produced a number of studies. Fletcher returned to Oberlin in 1927 as an assistant professor of history and he quickly developed a reputation as an outstanding and inspiring professor. While best known for his two-volume history of Oberlin College, Fletcher also published several articles on the history of the cattle industry in Montana. In 1959 Duke University Press published his book, Eureka: From Cleveland by Ship to California, 1849-1850 . Robert Fletcher died suddenly at the age of fifty-nine after spending more than thirty years teaching at Oberlin.

Robert S. Fletcher was born in Forestville, New York on November 20, 1900. In 1916, he graduated from Oberlin College with an A.B. in history. He entered Harvard University in 1922 to undertake graduate work in history, studying with Edward Channing, Arthur M. Schlesinger, and F.J. Turner. In 1927, Fletcher returned to Oberlin College as Assistant Professor of History, where he began work on his monumental A history of Oberlin College from its foundation through the Civil War (1943) which is regarded as the authoritative work on Oberlin College's history. Fletcher taught until 1958 and died in 1959.