Leo F. Solt, professor emeritus of History and dean of the University Graduate School, was born on October 12, 1921 in Waterloo, Iowa, and died in 1994 at the age of 72.
He received his B.A. in 1943 from Iowa State Teachers College (now the University of Northern Iowa), before joining the U.S. Navy in 1943 to serve as an officer on the aircraft carrier Bataan in the Pacific during the final years of World War II . Following the war, he attended graduate school, receiving his M.A. in 1948 from Iowa State University and his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1955. Solt taught courses at the University of Iowa and the University of Massachusetts before joining the Indiana University faculty in 1955. He accepted the responsibility of Acting Chair of Indiana University’s Department of History from 1962-1963, was promoted to full professor in 1961, and served as Chair of the Department of History from 1965-1970. He also chaired the West European Studies Program Committee. In 1978 he was named dean of the University Graduate School, a position he held until 1987. During his tenure in the department and the graduate school, he was instrumental in bringing the Journal of American History, the national office of the Organization of American Historians, and the American Historical Review to Indiana University.
Solt served as the president of the Midwest Conference on British Studies from 1968 to 1970 and as Vice President for Research of the American Historical Association in 1975. He is the author of two books Saints in Arms: Puritans and Democracy in Cromwell's Army and Church and State in Early Modern England, 1509-1640, as well as numerous reviews and scholarly articles, including "History of Britain, 1603-1714" for the 15th edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica.
From the guide to the Leo F. Solt papers, 1643-1996, Bulk 1940-1996, (Indiana University Office of University Archives and Records Management http://www.libraries.iub.edu/archives)
