Walter L. Buenger

Walter Louis Buenger (born January 19, 1951) is an historian of Texas and the American South and, since 2003, the head of the department of history at Texas A&M University in College Station.

Background

Buenger received all three of his degrees, Bachelor of Arts, Master of Arts, and Ph.D., from Rice University in Houston in 1973, 1977, and 1979, respectively. Immediately thereafter at the age of twenty-eight, he joined the history faculty at TAMU.

Scholarly pursuits

Buenger's 2001 book The Path to a Modern South: Northeast Texas Between Reconstruction and the Great Depression was awarded the Coral H. Tullis Award, given annually to a book that focuses on Texas. He is a fellow and past president (2009–2010) of the Texas State Historical Association.

Family

The Buengers, who reside in Bryan, Texas, have a son, Carl Davis Buenger (born ca. 1988), who graduated from Rice University with a mathematics degree in 2010. Their daughter, Erin Channing Buenger, died in 2009 of neuroblastoma pediatric cancer at the age of eleven. Former U.S. Representative Chet Edwards, a Buenger family friend, sponsored a successful bill to earmark $150 million toward a cure for neuroblastoma and other cancers. The measure was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush in July 2008.