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Date: March 26, 1998
Arthur S. Link, leading authority on Woodrow Wilson, dies
Historian spent 35 years editing the Papers of Woodrow Wilson
Advance, N.C. -- Arthur Stanley Link, the leading historian on Woodrow Wilson who directed the editing of the president's papers from start to finish, died Thursday, March 26, at the Bermuda Village Health Center, after a prolonged bout with lung cancer. He was 77.
Regarded as the foremost authority on Woodrow Wilson, Link wrote more than 30 books, including the five-volume biography of Wilson, as well as numerous articles and reviews. In more than five decades as a leading presidential historian, he delivered public presentations in all 50 states and in Europe, South America, and Japan. In recent years, he served as co-chair of the Working Group on Disability in U.S. Presidents, which published its final report in 1997. He is the recipient of numerous awards, including the Guggenheim and Rockefeller fellowships; 10 honorary degrees; and, on two occasions, the Bancroft Prize for the best book published in American History. An active Presbyterian, he served as ruling elder at Nassau Presbyterian Church, in Princeton, New Jersey. He also served as vice president of the National Council of Churches of Christ in America.
Link’s crowning scholarly achievement was the editing of the 69-volume Papers of Woodrow Wilson, which was published by the Princeton University Press between 1966 and 1994. The project began before the advent of modern word-processing technology, so Link personally chose every document, wrote most of the longer footnotes, and saw each volume through the press, all the while carrying a full teaching load at Princeton.
Born in New Market, Virginia, Link grew up in Mt. Pleasant, N.C. He graduated from the University of North Carolina, where he received the B.A. in 1941 and the Ph.D. in 1945. Subsequently, he had a long and distinguished career as an American historian. In 1945, he joined the faculty of Princeton University as an instructor and was promoted to assistant professor; he joined the faculty of Northwestern University as an associate professor and was named a full professor in 1954. He returned to Princeton in 1960. Link was named the Edwards Professor of American History (1965-1976) and, later, the George Henry Davis ’86 Professor of American History (1976-1991). In 1992, he retired to Bermuda Village, in Advance. He was later named Historian of the Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, as well as Distinguished Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro.
Link is survived by a sister, Elinor Link Cagan, of Brooklyn, N.Y.; four children, Dr. A. Stanley Link, Jr., of Winston-Salem; James Douglas Link, of Flemington, N.J.; Margaret Link Weil, of Chapel Hill; and Dr. William A. Link, of Greensboro; and four grandchildren. He was predeceased by his wife of more than 50 years, Margaret Douglas Link, in 1996, and by a brother and a sister.
Funeral services will be held at Shallowford Presbyterian Church, in Lewisville, at 2 p.m. on Sunday. In lieu of flowers or memorials, the family asks that gifts be made to the Shallowford Presbyterian Church Endowment Fund, P. O. Box 159, Lewisville, N.C., 27023.