Concordia mourns the passing of Donald Ginter
The department of History regrets to announce the passing of Donald E. Ginter, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, who died on February 10th at the age of 85.
He was a member of the Concordia History department, and before that the Sir George Williams History Department from 1970 to 1997. He became a full professor in 1987.
A native of California, Don completed his undergraduate education at Stanford University, and earned his PhD at the University of California at Berkeley in 1964.
A specialist in the history of Britain, Don was an excellent teacher who taught undergraduate and graduate courses in the history of Europe, general British history, the social and economic history of Britain, the social and cultural history of the British aristocracy, and historical methods. He always held his students to the highest standards of scholarly rigor.
Through his research and publications, Don established an international reputation as a leading authority in the social and political history of late 18th- and 19th-century England.
Don became an early practitioner and of and proselytizer for quantitative history, and this led him to a foray into US history and the undertaking of a joint project with his colleague, Fred Bode, on farm tenancy in 19th-century Georgia. His 1992 book A Measure of Wealth: The English Land Tax in Historical Analysis won the Wallace K. Ferguson Prize of the Canadian Historical Association for the best book in a field other than Canadian history in 1993.
Don continued to work actively on the British History of Parliament project, creating comprehensive division lists for the period 1791-1819. In 1995, Concordia’s Senate granted him its Distinguished Academic Achievement Award. He was also named a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society in England.
Don served as an undergraduate advisor, and on numerous faculty and university committees.
Don Ginter was an impressive scholar, an excellent teacher, and a valued colleague. He will be missed.