Donald F. Tingley

(1922-2004)

Another Past President of the Illinois State Historical Society has left us. Donald F. Tingley of Savoy, formerly of Charleston, died on Thursday, August 12. He is survived by Jeanne, his wife of sixty years, and Elizabeth, their daughter. A veteran of World War II, Don went on to earn his Ph.D. in history at the University of Illinois. Before going to Eastern Illinois University, where he served as Professor of History for thirty-one years, he was employed by the Illinois State Historical Library.

Don was the author and/or editor of a number of scholarly publications the most notable being Volume Five in the Sesquicentennial History of Illinois, The Structuring of the State: The History of Illinois, 1899-1928 (1980), and The Emerging University: A History of Easter Illinois University, 1949-1974 (1974).

Don's friends will miss his always lively historical discussions and his trenchant political observations. He was truly one of the best and brightest.

David J. Maurer
ISHS Past President (1980-'81)

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Donald F. Tingley

In the late 1960s, one could stand just about anywhere on the campus of Eastern Illinois University in Charleston, throw a rock, and be assured of hitting two or three great teachers. The history department was full of great teachers and active scholars. In the social, intellectual, and political ferment that was the 1960s, these individuals made the study of history important, interesting, and relevant. Because of them, students flocked to the department, which became the home of campus activism.

The EIU department back then was a contentious, exciting place where ideas mattered, just as it is today. And at the center of activity was Professor Don Tingley, whose quiet, low-key presence belied the tremendous regard in which he was held. Don's classroom approach was a mixture of lecture and discussion. He was particularly good in small classes, where he welcomed questions and comments from students. These conversational interchanges often led in new directions and invariably increased student understanding and appreciation of the topic at hand, be it colonial intellectual history, the U.S. Constitution, or the Supreme Court.

As a scholar, Don Tingley rarely, if ever, mentioned his published works in class. Only several years later did I realize the important role he played in advancing historical knowledge and interpretation. Today, one can look at his Essays in Illinois History (1968) and recognize its cutting edge nature. It leads off with his examination of anti-intellectualism on the Illinois frontier. Forty years later, that essay is still the starting point for any discussion on that topic.

"On the frontier," he wrote, "every man was as good as another as long as he could prove it by the standards of the area and this took the form of proving it with fists more often than with the intellect. It was a highly materialistic society intent on rapid improvement of its economic status, which could be accomplished best with brawn and a bit of native shrewdness. Education helped little... The human ego causes everyone to justify and apologize for what he is, and every man seems to feel the need to prove that his own background is the best." Don's writing style was straight ahead, free from preoccupations with theory or jargon, and with interpretation seamlessly imbedded in the clear and concise prose.

Earlier, in 1963, he helped usher in a reassessment of the good guys/bad guys scenario of the Illinois Civil War homefront, which had been dominant for decades. His ISHS Journal article on the "Clingman Raid" (Vol. 56, #2) was one of the initial strokes that continues to reconfigure the picture in shades of gray rather than the stark black and white tones of propagandists.Written only a few years after the height of the infamous McCarthy era persecutions, Don attempted to set the record straight on a then much-maligned group Civil War era Democrats:

"Name-calling and witch-hunting took on enormous proportions during the Civil War. Democrats dismayed by such attacks and disheartened by their lack of political success divided rather naturally into three groups. At one extreme was a group called the 'Peace Democrats,' who favored ending the war by whatever means that might prove expedient. This portion of the party was small, but many of the group were actually disloyal and some were quite sympathetic to the Southern cause. At the other extreme were the 'War Democrats,' who actually supported the Lincoln administration with such devotion that they consistently voted with the Republicans both at the polls and in the legislatures. But the great mass of Democrats lay between these two extremes. They were critical of the Lincoln administration at times but generally performed their duties as citizens in an unqualified way. They paid their taxes, served in the army, and hoped to preserve the Union." Most serious scholars of the Civil War today would have no argument with Tingley on this once-bold stand.

In his masterwork, The Structuring of a State: The History of Illinois, 1899-1928, Professor Tingley provides a glimpse of his Jeffersonian underpinnings as he sums up the era: "The life-style of Illinoisans became more frenetic as transportation, communications, and the pressure to produce speeded up life. And there was a new impersonality: citizens began to feel like cogs in machines.... The citizens of Illinois were the beneficiaries of the industrialized society but were its victims as well. Material progress was inevitable and irreversible. Illinoisans, by and large, lived a more comfortable life in 1928 than in 1900. But they also lost a little."

Don Tingley loved Eastern Illinois University with a lifelong passion. He deeply cared about its past, present, and future and this is clearly evident in The Emerging University: A History of Eastern Illinois University, 1949-1974, which he contributed to and edited in 1974.

He was one of those professors former students kept in touch with, even if only intermittently. Many became his surrogate sons and daughters and he followed their lives, successes, challenges, and movements with interest and sympathy. He was, it turns out, roughly the same age as the parents of these students during the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for many he became a sort of parent. At times, Don seemed sad, as if the burdens of the worlds injustices and tragedies were resting squarely atop his shoulders. But a chance encounter with a friend or a visit over a cup of coffee always brought a smile to his face. He loved people, including and especially his old students.

The reach of his friendship was wide and varied, cutting across generations, ideologies, races, and all the other artificial divides. To each, and especially to his students, he brought good cheer, a sympathetic ear, and encouragement. He will be missed.

—Bob Sampson
Urbana

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