Robert Hohner, historian of the American South

Robert A. Hohner, a historian of early twentieth-century southern politics, died on August 8, 2010, at his home in London, Ontario. In an educational career interrupted by service in the U.S. Navy, Bob received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. from Duke University. After teaching briefly at the U.S. Naval Academy, Bob took a position in 1965 at the University of Western Ontario (uwo), where he remained in the Department of History until his retirement in 2001.

His pioneering dissertation, supervised by Richard Watson, was on prohibition as a political and social issue in Virginia. He was active in several scholarly groups focused on prohibition, and his interests led him into a study of the life of Methodist cleric and political activist, James Cannon Jr. Despite delays created by lengthy and effective administrative service at uwo, he completed what is likely to be the definitive Cannon biography, Prohibition and Politics: The Life of Bishop James Cannon, Jr. (1999)....