Jack H. Hexter (1910-1996) was born May 25, 1910 in Memphis, Tennessee.  He was a historian who specialized in Tudor and seventeenth century British history and was well known for his comments on historiography.  In his later years, Hexter also became involved in politics. Hexter married Ruth Mullin in 1942; they had four children.

In 1931, Hexter was awarded a BA by the University of Cincinnati.  He went on to teach at Queens College in New York from 1939 to 1957.  Hexter then taught at Washington University in St. Louis from 1957 until 1964, and Yale University from 1964 to 1978.  While at Yale University, Hexter was a Charles Stillé Professor and founded the Yale Center for Parliamentary History in 1966.  In 1978, he returned to Washington University, becoming the John M. Olin Professor Emeritus of the History of Freedom.  He retired in 1990.

In the 1990s, Hexter became involved in politics, developing “Troops to Teachers”, a plan in which retired military officers would become teachers in public schools.  This plan was approved by the United States Senate on September 10, 1993.  Hexter died on December 8, 1996 in St. Louis.

Hexter’s publications include The Reign of King Pym (1941), More's Utopia: The Biography of an Idea (1952), “The Historian and His Day” (1954), Doing History (1971), and Parliament and Liberty from the Reign of Elizabeth to the English Civil War (1992, editor). Hexter was also the founder editor of the Stanford University Making of Modern Freedom series.

(Adapted from Journal of the History of Ideas 58.2 (1997) 349-350, by Donald R. Kelley and Wikipedia entry Jack H. Hexter)