Dr. Donald Horward, President
Professor at FSU (1961-2005) Founder of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution in 1990, he served as Director and the Ben Weider Eminent Scholar Chair in Napoleonic History until his retirement in 2005. He was named Chevalier (1984), Officier (1992), and the Commandeur (2001) de l’Ordres des Palmes Académique; received the U.S. Army Outstanding Service Award (1987); elected to the Portuguese Academy of History (1991); decorated as a Grand Officer of the Order of Infante Dom Henrique (Prince Henry the Navigator) in 1992; awarded the Legion of Merit, International Napoleonic Society (1997); named The John Elting Scholar, Napoleonic Alliance (2002); and Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur (2002).
Dr. Skip Vichness, Vice PresidentAs the managing partner of Quality Camping Properties, Inc., Samuel “Skip” Vichness operates day and resident camps throughout the Northeast. Dr. Vichness received his Ph.D. from Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida in ____. He is one of the largest private camp operators in North America. As a Jewish communal volunteer he has focused on summer camps and day school education. Skip has chaired the National Ramah Commission, the camping arm of the Conservative Movement and is the immediate past chair of the Foundation for Jewish Camp, a continent wide umbrella organization that works with over 151 not for profit camps across North America. He is a past chair of the Golda Och Academy, a Sololmon Schechter K-12 day school, which at the time of his presidency was the largest parochial school of its kind in the United States. He has also served in a number of leadership positions in the camping profession and has been honored locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. He is the founding chair of the Ben Appelbaum Foundation – an entrepreneurial incubator involved in more than 35 projects in the New York metropolitan area. Currently he is the vice chair of the budget and finance committee of the board of trustees of his alma mater, Randolph Macon College, as well as being a member of the Presidents Society at Florida State University. In his spare time, Skip is an avid golfer. Skip and his wife Ilana are parents to Shai, Ittamar and Aileen, all of whom reside in Manhattan.
Dr. Peter Hicks, International Representative
After a degree in Classics at University College London (1982-1985), a year’s study at the Istituto di Paleografia, Università “La Sapienza”, Rome, he studied for a PhD at St John’s College, Cambridge. He was lettore at the University of Pavia (1990-1991) and began working as a historian for the Fondation Napoléon in 1997. Simultaneously he was appointed Visiting Research Fellow (1997-2007) and later Visiting Professor (2007- ) at the University of Bath. In March 2006 Peter Hicks was appointed Honorary Fellow of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution, Florida State University. In December 2011, he was appointed to the Editorial Board of the series “St Andrews Studies in French History and Culture”, University of St Andrews, Scotland. In November 2008, he was appointed by the Provincia di Alessandria to the advisory committee for the creation of the new Marengo Museum, Alessandria, Italy. He is on the editorial board of the international journals Albertiana and Napoleonica La Revue.Director of Music at St George’s Anglican church in Paris and pursued a career as a singer and choir director. He is also the musical director of the Paris choral society, Musicanti.
Ms. Ruth Godfrey, TreasurerRuth Godfrey Sigler is a retired Foreign Service Officer and international consultant on migration and refugee issues. She frequently assisted her late husband, Jack Sigler, with his archival research on the Napoleonic period and participated in meetings of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era, the International Napoleonic Society, and the Society for Military History. She obtained her M.A. in Classics from Johns Hopkins University in 1972 and her B.A. from Florida State University in 1970.
Dr. Kenneth Johnson, Website
Associate Professor of Comparative Military Studies at the Air Command and Staff College since 2010. Deputy Department Chair of the Department of Research and Publications since May 2015. Assistant Professor of History at United States Military Academy from 2008-2010.
Dr. Rafe BlaufarbDr. Rafe Blaufarb is the Ben Weider Eminent Scholar in Napoleonic Studies at Florida State University and Director of the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan in 1996. He is the author of several books on the social and political history of the French military during this period: The French Army, 1750-1820: Careers, Talent, Merit (Manchester, 2002) and Bonapartists in the Borderlands: French Exiles and Refugees on the Gulf Coast, 1815-1835 (Tuscaloosa, 2006). He has published articles in the American Historical Review, Annales, H.S.S., Comparative Studies in Society and History, French Historical Studies, and Annales Historiques de la Révolution Française on the French army, the French nobility, noble fiscal privilege, and the geopolitics of Latin American independence. His current research focuses on the politics of property during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era.
Dr. Kyle Eidahl
Dr. Eidahl received his Ph.D. from Florida State University in 1990. He currently serves as Professor of History and Director of the Masters of Applied Social Sciences Program at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Dr. Eidahl has a passion for the French Revolution, Napoleon, early American history, the Civil War and the Haitian Revolution. He served as an historical expert on the State of Florida End of Course U.S. History Item Review Committee from 2010-2012. He also served on the editorial board for the Consortium on Revolutionary Europe from 2004-2007. He received the Distinguished Medal from the Institute of the French Revolution and Napoleon in 2004.
Dr. Michael Leggiere
Dr. Michael V. Leggiere, one of the leading historians in the world of the Napoleonic Wars, joined UNT and the Military History Center in 2008. Mike received his PhD in history from Florida State University after studying at the Institute on Napoleon and the French Revolution under the direction of Donald D. Horward. Mike has published three award-winning books, Napoleon and Berlin: The Franco-Prussian War in North Germany, 1813 (2002); The Fall of Napoleon. Vol. I: The Allied Invasion of France, 1813-14 (2007); Blücher: Scourge of Napoleon (2014); two-volume Napoleon and the Struggle for Germany: The Franco-Prussian War of 1813 (2015). The Blücher book received the 2015 Distinguished Book Award in Biography by the Society for Military History. He is presently writing volume two of the Fall of Napoleon for Cambridge University Press, and is also writing a new history of the Battle of Waterloo for Yale University Press. Mike is an active member of the Society for Military History and serves on the Board of Directors of the Consortium on the Revolutionary Era. At the Military History Center he serves as Deputy Director. Mike enjoys teaching the French Revolution, Napoleon, the Age of Nationalism, and the military history of 18th century Europe.
V.A. Massena, Prince d’Essling, Fondation Napoléon, honorary chairman