Benson, Robert Louis, 1925-....

Biography

Robert Louis Benson, professor of history, was born in 1925 in Portland, Oregon and died 18 February 1996 in Los Angeles. Benson conducted undergraduate studies at Princeton University and earned his Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley under the direction of the distinguished German Èmigré scholar, Ernst H. Kantorowicz. He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II. A scholar specializing in German history of the High Middle Ages, Benson took teaching positions at Barnard College, Wesleyan University, and the Free University of Berlin before accepting a position in 1974 with the UCLA Dept. of History. Benson taught at UCLA for the next twenty years, retiring in 1994. Soon after retiring, Benson accepted a teaching position at Yale University.

Benson was a notable and gifted lecturer, delivering the Carlyle Lectures at Oxford University in 1989. He was also a visiting fellow of the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton University in 1993.

From the guide to the Robert L. Benson papers, ca. 1960-1996, (University of California, Los Angeles. Library. Department of Special Collections.)