William John Shepherd, the only child of William Lewis Shepherd
(1938-1979) and Iola Pearl Sinclair (1935- ), was born 24 June 1962 at
Greensburg, Westmorland County, Pennsylvania. He is descended from Scottish
and English coal miners as well as Pennsylvania German farmers. His abiding
interests are in immigration, labor, and military history in general and the
culture and history of Northern England, Pennsylvania, Scotland,
Southwestern Germany, and Ulster, Ireland, in particular.
He graduated from Harmony High School, Westover, PA, in 1980 and
attended the Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) in Indiana, PA,
receiving a BA in History with minors in International Studies and German in
1984 and a MA in History with a concentration in British history in 1986. He
has subsequently studied military and British history at the University of
Maryland, 1988-1990, and library science at The Catholic University of
America (CUA) in 1992.
Mr. Shepherd began his archival career as an Intern at the Maryland
State Archives in Annapolis, MD, 1988-1989, and has been a salaried employee
at the American Catholic History Research Center and University Archives of
The Catholic University of America in Washington, DC, since 1989, serving as
Acting Archivist in 1994-1995, Assistant Archivist from 1995 to 2002,
Associate Archivist since 2002-2018, and University Archivist and Head of
Special Collections since 2019..
He is Content Editor of the CUA Special Collections web page at
https://libraries.catholic.edu/special-collections/archives/index.html
as well as editor and frequent writer for The Archivist’s Nook at
https://www.lib.cua.edu/wordpress/newsevents/category/acua/archivistsnook/
He was a contributor to AN HISTORICAL LIST OF PUBLIC OFFICIALS OF
MARYLAND (1990), THE NEW CATHOLIC ENCYLOPEDIA (2003), and to the COLUMBIA
GUIDE TO IRISH-AMERICAN HISTORY (2005) edited by Timothy J. Meagher. He has
had articles published in YOURS AYE (Clan Sinclair Newsletter), MILITARY
HISTORY magazine, and U.S. CATHOLIC HISTORIAN as well as book reviews in
journals such as THE HISTORIAN, BRITISH STUDIES, FINEST HOUR (Journal of the
International Churchill Society), Proceedings of the United States Naval
Institute, and magazines such as MILITARY HISTORY, WORLD WAR II, AMERICA’S
CIVIL WAR, CIVIL WAR TIMES, and the Hillsdale College Churchill Project
website at
https://winstonchurchill.hillsdale.edu/
He and his late wife, Marie, have one child, a son named William
John Jr. and born in 1996. Besides reading, hobbies include hiking, fantasy
football, and cooking. |