Professor Walter Edgar has been associated with the University of South Carolina for more than 30 years.   In 1965 he entered the graduate program in history and received his M.A. in 1967 and his Ph.D. in 1969.   After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.

In 1972 he joined the faculty of the History Department and in 1980 was named director of the Institute for Southern Studies.   Dr. Edgar holds the Claude Henry Neuffer Chair in Southern Studies.   In June 1999 he was named the George Washington Distinguished Professor of History, and in 2001 he received the Louise Fry Scudder Faculty Award.

Over the past three decades, he has written or edited nine books about South Carolina and the American South, including his most recent, South Carolina:  A History, the first new, comprehensive history of the state in more than 60 years.

In addition to his university service, he has been active in the community and served as an office or board member of numerous organizations including the South Carolinjana Society, Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, Historic Columbia Foundation, Columbia Museum of Art, and the Friends of the Richland County Public Library.   In 1995 he retired as a colonel in the Army Reserves after a thirty-year career.

He is married to Elizabeth Giles (Betty), and they have two grown daughters, Eliza (who lives in Washington) and Amelia (who lives in Los Angeles).   In his spare time, he enjoys reading, gardening, and squash.