Roeder, Richard B.

Richard B. Roeder was born in Schuylkill Haven, Pennsylvania on August 23, 1930, the sixth child of Herman and Mary Roeder. Roeder attended local schools and one year of post-graduate study at Admiral Farragut Academy in New Jersey. He attended Swarthmore College as an undergraduate student, and graduated in 1953. Graduate study was at the University of Pennsylvania, were he received his Masters in History in 1957 and his doctorate in 1971. Roeder worked for the University of Montana School of Pharmacy and the Montana Legislative Council before receiving a teaching position at Montana State University (MSU) in 1962. His teaching career at MSU lasted for twenty-two years, retiring in 1984. Roeder continued to teach as an adjunct professor into the 1990s at Carroll College. Roader's research interest were primarily concerned with aspects of Montana history. With Michael Malone, Roeder edited three books on Montana history. Yet, his best known book is Montana: A History of Two Centuries, co-authored with Malone in 1976 and reprinted in 1991 with the addition of William Lang. Roeder also contributed articles or essays to Montana: The Magazine of Western History, Montana Law Review, The Last Best Place: A Montana Anthology, Montana Myths, and Montana and the West: Essays in Honor of K. Ross Toole. Richard Roeder's interests also included public affairs. He was appointed by the governor to the Constitution Revision Commission in 1969. Two years later he won election as a delegate to the state's Constitutional Convention, were he served on the convention's Executive Committee and Committee on Style and Drafting. He also worked for the state's Lieutenant Governors' Office between 1984-1988. Roeder served on the editorial board of Montana: The Magazine of Western History, was as active participant with the Montana Committee for the Humanities, a citizen member of the Judicial Nomination Commission, and a member of the Montana Historical Society Board of Trustees. He twice won The Montana Award in the Humanities. Richard Roeder married Janet Merrill of Missoula, Montana in 1953. The couple had three children, Karin, Ellen, and Thomas. Roeder died on December 23, 1995 in Helena, Montana.

From the guide to the Richard B. Roeder Papers, 1949-1995, (Montana State University-Bozeman Library, Merrill G Burlingame Special Collections)

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