Donald F. Lach
American historian (1917-2000)
Donald Frederick Lach (pronounced "Lach, as in Bach") (September 24, 1917 – October 26, 2000) was an American historian based as a professor in the Department of History at the University of Chicago. He was an authority on Asian influence in the European civilization during the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.
Early life and education
Lach was born in 1917 in Pittsburgh to parents of German descent. He lived in Carrick, where he spoke German in the home. He had one sister, Elizabeth, nine years his junior. The family moved from Pittsburgh to Morgantown WV when Lach's father became an accountant and obtained jobs in the fine glass industry. After completing elementary education in public schools, he received a B.A. degree from West Virginia University in 1937 and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Chicago in 1941.
Career
Lach began his teaching career at Elmira College (1941–1948), then returned to the University of Chicago where he remained throughout his career. He received a Fulbright Scholarship to study in France (1949–1950) and a Social Science Research grant to continue his European research (1952–1953). He returned to Paris for several months in 1956.
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This entry incorporates text from “Donald F. Lach” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.