Our colleague Christopher Collier, historian and author, passed away on March 6, 2020 at the age of 90.  He was a member of the UConn History Department from 1984 until 1999.  Kit, as he was known, was the official Connecticut State Historian and taught courses at UConn in early American history, Connecticut history, and Connecticut constitutional history. He was a founding member of the Connecticut Supreme Court Historical Society.

His research and writing broadened our understanding of the founding principles of American constitutional government, as well as the role of Connecticut in shaping those principles and their institutions. Among Kit’s publications are:  Roger Sherman’s Connecticut: Yankee Politics and the American Revolution;  Decision in Philadelphia (with James Lincoln Collier);  and All Politics is Local: Family, Friends, and Provincial Interests in the Creation of the Constitution.  He was well-known as the author of eight historical novels for young adults (also with James), most notably, My Brother Sam is Dead, awarded a Newberry Medal by the American Library Association.

 

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