Dates

• Existence: 1940 - 2021

Biographical Note

David Christopher Montgomery (1940-2021) was a Professor of History Emeritus at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah where he served from 1970, formally retiring in 2002 after thirty-two years. During this time he was Coordinator of the Near Eastern Studies Program from 1978 to 1985 and from 1988 to 1990 was the Graduate Coordinator of the Department of History. He taught World History, Near Eastern and Central Asian History and occasionally the Turkish language. He had received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1971, where he studied Russian and Asian history as well as the Russian, Turkish, Uzbek and Mongolian languages. He previously served in the U.S. Army (1961-1963).

Montgomery had an interest in the Near East, Central (Inner) Asia and Aviation History. He lived for two years in West Asia: one year in Ankara, Turkey from 1966-1967 on a Fulbright Grant, and a total of one year in Tashkent, Uzbekistan (three multi-month stays during 1969, 1977-1978 and 1982) on grants from the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX). He researched various aspects of the cultural history of the Uzbek Turks who live in the Soviet-Afghan border area and are the largest non-European ethnic group in the Soviet Union. He was the major data contributor to a recently published Uzbek-English dictionary. He published one book and thirty-four other items about the peoples along the Asian and Near Eastern borders of the Soviet Union. He also had an interest in military history, both the political and diplomatic aspects as well as the technical and tactical/strategic aspects.

While retired, Dr. Montgomery still engaged in history activities: mainly, a documentation project for source materials relating to aviation history, and occasionally an “informal” bibliography of materials about the “End of the World in Film, Fiction and Fact”.

Professor Montgomery was born and raised in the Chicago, Illinois area, although he lived most of his life in Utah. He was married to his first wife, Lynda Crane, until the couple divorced in 1975. He married to Jeanne V. Emmett (d. 2018) of Washington, D.C. in 1976. The couple had seven sons. David C. Montgomery died on July 19, 2021 in Salt Lake City, Utah.

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