W. Stuart Towns

W. Stuart Towns is an historian of southern public communication who has published five books in his field. Stuart received his B.A. at the University of Arkansas, where he was on the track and cross country teams. After he completed his M.A. and Ph.D. at the University of Florida, he taught speech communication history and criticism. He served as chairman of the communication departments at the University of West Florida, Appalachian State, and Southeast Missouri State. He also had a parallel career as a member of the Active Army Reserves, retiring as a Colonel in 1996.

Stuart coached the men's cross country team at the University of West Florida for 15 years; he was awarded several Coach of the Year honors in the NAIA and NCAA Div. II. His teams won NAIA District championships 9 times and Gulf South Conference championships 3 of 5 years after UWF moved to NCAA Div. II.

His first three books are edited anthologies of southern oratory: the first volume covers the 19th century (Oratory and Rhetoric in the Nineteenth-Century South: A Rhetoric of Defense), the second volume includes speeches from the 20th century (Public Address in the Twentieth-Century South: The Evolution of a Region), and the third volume focuses on speeches from the southern Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s ("We Want Our Freedom. . . ." Rhetoric of the Civil Rights Movement).

His fourth book, Enduring Legacy: Rhetoric and Ritual of the Lost Cause, discusses a major cause of the lasting impact of the Civil War on southern history. He makes the case that three events held many times across the defeated region helped create the public memory of the Civil War which is still alive and well in the 21st century: Confederate Veterans' Reunions, Confederate Memorial Day commemorations, and the creation and dedication of monuments to soldiers and women of the War era. His most recent book, Arkansas Civil War Heritage: A Legacy of Honor, describes these three events as they evolved in Arkansas and how they are being used today to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the Civil War.

He is currently writing a history of the U.S. Modern Pentathlon Team, which dates back to our first modern pentathlete, George Patton, who, in 1912, represented the U.S. in the first Olympic Modern Pentathlon event. Stuart was on the U.S. Modern Pentathlon team in 1963 and 1964.