Eugene P. Link Papers, 1907-1993

NOTE: The information found in this sketch comes from Eugene Link's resume (ca. 1984) which includes narrative annotations by his wife Beulah. The resume was updated upon the accession of the Link Papers from 1991-1993. Biographical information about Link can also be found in Ann Evory, ed., Contemporary Authors: A Bio-Bibliographical Guide to Current Authors and Their Works, vols. 37-40, 1st revision (Detroit, Michigan: Gale Research Co., 1979), 333 and Jaques Cattell Press, Directory of American Scholars, 8th ed., vol. I (New York & London: R.R. Bowker Co., 1982), 455.

Eugene Perry Link was a son of the American Midwest. Born in Paris, Illinois on September 4, 1907, Link spent most of his early life in Emporia, Kansas, where he attended high school. His parents were Nathaniel (a pharmacist of some renown) and Lidabelle Link. As the middle child of the Link family (he had an older brother, Wendell, and a younger sister, Lidabelle), young Eugene distinguished himself early on through academics and through his oratory skills, winning the Kansas State Oratorical Contest four times during his high school and college years.

In the midst of the Great Depression, Link resolved to pursue an academic career. He graduated with the B.A. degree from the College of Emporia in 1929; three years of graduate study at the University of Chicago followed (1929-1931). Forced to leave Chicago because of finances, Link won an honors scholarship to Union Theological Seminary in 1931. Link's decision to attend a religious seminary is instructive of his later career. From the early 1930s onward, his academic scholarship would be consistently informed by Christian ethics and social justice. No person (other than his wife and collaborator, Beulah, whom he married in 1938) would make a greater impression on Link than Dr. Harry F. Ward, professor of ethics at Union Seminary and co-founder of the American Civil Liberties Union. In many ways, Link's mature career was an effort to expand upon and apply the earlier work of his mentor, Ward.

Although he was ordained to the ministry of the Congregational Church in 1933, from the mid-1930s onward, Link's professional arena was predominantly the classroom. He held a succession of academic positions over four decades: Instructor of History, Mt. Hermon School, Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts (1933-1937); Assistant Professor of Social Science, Limestone College, Gaffney, S.C.(1938-1940); Professor and Chair of Sociology, State Women's College, Rock Hill, S.C. (1942-1944); Professor of Social Science, State Teachers College, Montclair, N.J. (1944-1946); Professor and Chair of Sociology, University of Denver, Denver, Colorado (1946-1950); Professor and Divisional Chair of Social Science, State University of New York, New Paltz (1950-1963); and Research Professor of American Social History, State University of New York, Plattsburgh (1963-1977; emeritus after 1977). Largely through part-time attendance in the late 1930s, Link obtained his Ph.D. in social history from Columbia University in 1941.

As Link matured professionally, he increasingly concentrated on those groups that have tended to suffer from the abuses of the capitalist system: laborers, women, minorities, and Third World nations. This emphasis can be seen as a natural extension of the "Social Gospel" doctrine formulated by Washington Gladden, Walter Rauschenbusch, Harry F. Ward, and others. As a teacher at Plattsburgh, Link was among the first to champion an expanded curriculum in the social sciences that examined those who were traditionally ignored in social history.

Link's greater renown comes from the degree to which he has been able to translate his concern for social justice into action. He has traveled abroad extensively. He served as a Fulbright Lecturer in India two different times (1954 and 1960) and strongly urged the United States government to establish diplomatic relations with the Peoples Republic of China in the 1970s. The clearest example of Link's penchant for action rather than theory, however, has been his long association with the American Federation of Teachers (since 1935) and the United University Professions. In the 1970s, Link held the important offices of Vice President in the New York State University Federation of Teachers and served as leader for Membership Development for the United University Professions. He was also instrumental in the creation of the Committee of Active Retired Members (CO-ARM) of the UUP. His experience and counsel have been sought repeatedly by union organizers from campuses around the nation.

The varied interests of Link can be seen in his numerous publications and correspondence. His major books are The Democratic-Republican Societies (Columbia University Press, 1942); Victories in the Villages (National Council on Educational Research and Training, 1964); The College of Emporia: Retrospection and Appreciation (Vermont Villanti Press, 1982); Labor-Religion Prophet: The Times and Life of Harry F. Ward (Westview Press, 1984); The Humanitarian Tradition in American Medicine: The Social Ideas of Physicians (Academy of Independent Scholars, 1990); and The T.B.'s Progress: Norman Bethune As Artist (Plattsburgh State University, 1991). In addition, Link has produced dozens of scholarly articles, book reviews, and unpublished prose essays dealing with American social history, marriage and family relations, the medical profession, and labor unions.

Link carried on a wide array of correspondence with colleagues and students. Of special interest are letters to and from George Angell, Herbert Aptheker, Lee Ball, Cyril Bibby, Merle Curti, Buell Gallagher, Arnold Johnson, and Corliss Lamont. Most of these letters are preserved in the Eugene P. Link Papers.

Officially retired from SUNY, Plattsburgh since 1977, Link remained very active as an author and union activist. His three children, Martha (Mrs. Charles Casey), Perry Jr., and Bruce all followed their father into professions in academia. Dr. Link died on April 26, 2006.