Bob Skipper/Courtesy of Special Collections Library, WKU
Dr. Lowell Harrison in 1986
Lowell Harrison was an influential Kentucky historian who wrote or edited 15 books and taught history at Western Kentucky University for two decades.
Harrison’s books include The Civil War in Kentucky (1975), George Rogers Clark and the War in the West (1976), The Anti-Slavery Movement in Kentucky (1978), Kentucky’s Governors (1985), Western Kentucky University (1987), Kentucky’s Road to Statehood (1992) and Lincoln of Kentucky (2000).
He co-edited The Kentucky Encyclopedia in 1992 with fellow Kentucky historians Thomas D. Clark and James C. Klotter (both Kentucky Writers Hall of Fame inductees) and John E. Kleber. Also with Klotter, Harrison wrote A New History of Kentucky (1997). He published 115 articles in journals.
“As a writer and historian, Dr. Harrison published groundbreaking scholarship that reframed how we think about Kentucky Civil War history, our state history, the Commonwealth’s governors and more,” said Stuart Sanders, director of research and publications at the Kentucky Historical Society. “Most important, his writing made the Bluegrass State’s past accessible to the public and demonstrated how our history influences Kentucky today.”
Harrison received several awards from WKU, including the Faculty Research Award in 1971, the Public Service Award in 1986, and inclusion in the Hall of Distinguished Alumni in 1999. He received the Thomas D. Clark Award for Excellence in Kentucky History from the Center for Kentucky History and Politics in 2001 and was awarded the Kentucky Historical Society Distinguished Service Award in 2010.
Harrison was involved with many historical associations, including the Kentucky and Filson historical societies and the Kentucky Oral History Commission. He served on the University Press of Kentucky’s editorial board.
He was born Oct. 23, 1922, in Russell Springs (Russell County). He served in the Army during World War II as a combat engineer in Europe. He graduated from WKU in 1946 with a bachelor’s degree in history and earned his M.A. (1947) and Ph.D. (1951) at New York University. He attended the London School of Economics as a Fulbright Scholar.
From 1952-67, Harrison taught and was head of the history department at West Texas State University. In 1967, he returned to his alma mater in Bowling Green as a senior scholar and graduate adviser. He was twice elected to WKU’s Board of Regents.
Harrison retired from full-time teaching in 1988 but continued to teach part time until 1994. He died Oct. 22, 2011. Harrison’s wife of 63 years, Elaine “Penny” Harrison, died in 2016.