About the Author

William B. Crawley Jr. is a native of Chatham, Virginia, and a graduate of Hargrave Military Academy. At Hampden-Sydney College, he received a B.A. in Latin magna cum laude and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He earned both his M.A.
and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Virginia, where he was chosen for membership in the Raven Society and Omicron Delta Kappa.

He joined the history faculty of the University of Mary Washington (then the Mary Washington College of the University of Virginia) in 1970 and served a number of years as department chair. In 1994 he received the Grellet C. Simpson Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, and in 2005, the Mary W. Pinschmidt Award, given annually to the professor selected by the graduating class as the faculty member who had the greatest impact on their lives.

In addition to teaching, he has held several administrative positions at Mary Washington, including
executive assistant to the president, director of the Governor’s School for the Gifted, and director of the Center for Historic Preservation. In 1988 he was appointed institutional historian and was awarded the Rector and Visitors Professorship in History. He is the author of Bill Tuck: A Political Life in Harry Byrd’s Virginia.

He is married to Theresa Young Crawley, a 1977 Mary Washington alumna. The institution recognized the couple’s extensive contributions to Mary Washington by naming a Washington Scholarship for them in 2002 and awarding Washington Medallions to them in 2006.