April 24, 2000

Thomas Paterson, professor emeritus of history, recently received the 2000 Kidger Award for excellence in teaching and scholarship. The award, sponsored by the New England History Teachers Association, was given to him at the Northeast Regional Conference of Social Studies on March 9 in New Haven.

Paterson also delivered the keynote address, "The Forty Years War: Cuba and the United States," and spoke about serving as a mentor.

Paterson, who retired in 1997, was honored a year later with a symposium on revisionism in U.S. foreign relations.

He is recognized for his preeminent scholarship in modern U.S. foreign relations, especially the Cold War. He has authored, coauthored, or edited more than 16 books, including On Every Front: The Making and Unmaking of the Cold War and Contesting Castro: The United States and the Triumph of the Cuban Revolution. He was elected president of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations.

Paterson is recognized not only as an outstanding scholar but also as an excellent instructor.

One of his former Ph.D. students, David Sheinin, now a professor of history at Trent University, described him as "a brilliant teacher" who "effectively brought his research to the classroom and made history fascinating for all who learned with him."

Rebecca Stygar