Roscoe Carlyle Buley

Roscoe Carlyle Buley was born in Georgetown, Indiana , on July 8, 1893 the son of Dr. David M. and Nora (Keithley) Buley. He was a 1910 graduate of Vincennes High School. Buley was no doubt influenced by his high school principal Logan Esarey, a man who was destined to become a most eminent historian, author and long-time professor at Indiana University. Buley graduated from Indiana University with a Bachelor’s degree in 1914 and earned a Master’s degree in 1916. He spent his early years teaching high school history at Delphi and Muncie, Indiana, and Springfield , Illinois . During World War I he served his country in the Army Signal Corps, and on arriving home from the war in 1919 he married Esther Giles. Following her death in 1921 he married Evelyn Barnett. In 1925 he completed work on a Ph.D. degree at the University of Wisconsin, and that same year became a professor of history at Indiana University. Buley was a professor at Indiana University from 1925 to 1964 and emeritus professor until his death. He wrote many books and articles during his tenure, most important being his Pulitzer Prize winning two-volume work The Old Northwest : Pioneer Period, 1815-1840, and The American Life Convention: Study in the History of Life Insurance. He was an extremely dedicated teacher whose commitment was shown in the countless hours he devoted to his students. Even today, friends reminisce about his office and home door always being open to anyone who wished to stop in and ask questions or simply chat. His stories were legendary. He was recognized by IU students for his dedication by being given two awards from the Sigma Delta Chi journalism society-- the Leather Medal in 1952 for the professor who contributed greatly to the advancement of the university, and the Brown Derby Award in 1962 for the most popular professor on campus. He died on April 25, 1968, in Indianapolis and was survived by his wife, Evelyn. In the Buley Papers at the Indiana University Archives are two photographs taken in his youth in Vincennes. One is a picture of him posing in front of a high jumping bar, and the other is of his dog. On the back of the photo of his dog he wrote that he had “purchased it as a puppy about 1906 with the first five dollars he made delivering papers for the Vincennes Sun.” This was probably his first connection with a newspaper, but certainly not his last. It was 1951 when he received the Pulitzer Prize in History for his two-volume masterpiece, The Old Northwest.