Robin Higham, Ph.D., was born in 1925, the son of an American mother and a British father. He raised in London before being sent to the United States at the outbreak of the Battle of Britain in 1940. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1943, and flew over both Europe and Asia before being discharged in 1947. He attended the University of New Hampshire and then transferred to Harvard University, graduating with honors in 1950.
Higham was also married in 1950 to his wife, Barbara, and the couple lived in California for a few years before returning to Cambridge. He earned his Ph.D. in 1957, with a dissertation on the development of British aviation. The family then moved to North Carolina, where Higham taught in the History Department at the University of North Carolina from 1957-1963. He also helped found the Duke and University of North Carolina National Security Seminar.
Higham left UNC in 1963 and moved to Kansas State University, where he helped establish the school's doctoral program in military history. He also served as editor for Military Affairs (now the Journal of Military History ) from 1968 through 1988, Aerospace Historian from 1970 through 1988, and the Journal of the West from 1977 through 2003(?). In addition, he founded Sunflower University Press in 1977. He is professor emeritus in the History Department at Kansas State University.
From the guide to the Robin Higham Papers, 1940-1949, (David M. Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Duke University)
