Springfield, Ohio – Professor Emeritus of History Charles Chatfield was recently honored for his achievements and activism as one of two 2012 “Peace Heroes” by the Dayton International Peace Museum.

Chatfield retired from Wittenberg’s faculty in 1999, but he has continued his activities in the peace history movement, and he has donated many of his groundbreaking books to the Dayton International Peace Museum Library. He is the author of numerous books and articles on the subject of peace history, including An American Ordeal: The Antiwar Movement of the Vietnam Era, a book co-written with Charles DeBenedetti that won the prestigious Kuehl Prize in 1991.

The Dayton International Peace Museum is one of the few community-based institutions with a focus on peace in the United States. The non-profit museum offers educational programs and exhibits featuring themes of non-violent conflict resolution, social justice issues, international relations and peace.

Chatfield first came to Wittenberg in 1961 – a turbulent time in U.S. history marked by war and social change. Chatfield believes American culture matured in the 1960s, and the decade itself contributed greatly to the formation of a new branch of history.

During his tenure at Wittenberg, Chatfield served as chair of the history department, director of International Education and director of the "Global Issues and World Churches" study-abroad program. In 1996, Chatfield received the Wittenberg Alumni Association Award for Distinguished Teaching, the highest recognition Wittenberg bestows on its faculty.

Wittenberg’s first professor to hold the H. Orth Hirt Chair in History, which was established in 1998, Chatfield was honored by the Peace History Society (PHS) in 2007 with a prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award. Founded in 1964, PHS seeks to broaden the understanding of and possibilities for world peace as its members work to make peace research relevant to the scholarly disciplines, policy makers and to their own societies.

Chatfield received his bachelor’s degree from Monmouth College (Ill.) and his master’s and doctorate from Vanderbilt University. During his career, he presented papers at professional meetings throughout the world, including Austria, Mexico, India and Russia, and he is credited with being one of the first scholars to draw a connection between peace and justice movements. He was named a Danforth Fellow and a recipient of a Danforth Year of Theology Award, and he served as a fellow at the Mershon Center for Education in National Security at The Ohio State University.

Written By: Ryan Maurer