Former Eastern Illinois history department chair Hennings dead at 86

The former chairman of the history department for 16 years, died on Friday at the Sarah Bush Lincoln Health Center in Charleston.

Robert Edward Hennings, 86, served as the chairman of the history department from 1974-1990 and helped steer the department through challenging times and was responsible for many excellent hires, said Anita Shelton, chair of the history dept.

Hennings came to Eastern when the history dept. had recently been created out of the old social science department.

He was also one of several faculty members to launch the very successful Historical Administration masters program in 1974, Shelton said....