Early life and schooling

Stanford E. Lehmberg was born in McPherson, Kansas

McPherson, Kansas

McPherson is a city in and the county seat of McPherson County, Kansas, United States, in the central part of the state. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 13,155. The city is named after Union General James Birdseye McPherson, a Civil War general...

. Lehmberg's father was a Kansas dealer in farm implements, who spent most of his life also managing a local bank. Lehmberg's mother was a teacher (of Latin) in Kansas public schools before Stanford was born. Lehmberg was a good student in McPherson public schools, and also received training in organ performance

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 during his junior high and high school years.

Lehmberg attended the University of Kansas

University of Kansas

The University of Kansas is a public research university and the largest university in the state of Kansas. KU campuses are located in Lawrence, Wichita, Overland Park, and Kansas City, Kansas with the main campus being located in Lawrence on Mount Oread, the highest point in Lawrence. The...

, receiving a BA degree (Humanities) in 1953 and an MA degree (History, specializing in Italian Renaissance) in 1954. After his MA, Lehmberg applied for and received a Fulbright Scholarship to study abroad, which he used at the University of Cambridge

University of Cambridge

The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

 in London. He received a Ph.D. (1956) from Cambridge after completing a dissertation on Sir Thomas Elyot, author of the first Latin-English dictionary to be published in sixteenth-century England. In that effort Lehmberg worked extensively with noted English historian Sir Geoffrey Elton.

Teaching career

While still in England Lehmberg received a job offer from the University of Texas at Austin

University of Texas at Austin

The University of Texas at Austin is a state research university located in Austin, Texas, USA, and is the flagship institution of the The University of Texas System. Founded in 1883, its campus is located approximately from the Texas State Capitol in Austin...

. He taught British History at that University from 1956 to 1969. He found that institution's History Library to be almost non-existent in the British History section, and worked tirelessly to increase its size and stature, although during his entire time there the library's budget was quite limited.

When esteemed historian and professor David Harris Willson

David Harris Willson

David Harris Willson was an American historian and professor who specialized in the history of Seventeenth Century England.-Early life and education:...

 retired from the University of Minnesota

University of Minnesota

The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...

, Lehmberg was invited to move to Minnesota. He has taught at UM since 1969, twice chairing the History Department, and in 2000 co-authoring a history of the university.

Writing career

Lehmberg's Ph.D. thesis eventually evolved into his first book, Sir Thomas Elyot, Tudor Humanist (1960). He then wrote a modernized edition of Elyot's book Book Named the Governor (1962). His next book was a history of Sir Walter Mildmay

Walter Mildmay

Sir Walter Mildmay was an English statesman who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer of England under Queen Elizabeth I, and was founder of Emmanuel College, Cambridge.-Early life:...

's political career, Sir Walter Mildmay and Tudor Government (1964). Later came The Reformation Parliament, 1529-1536 (1970), with a sequel The Later Parliaments of Henry VIII, 1536-1547 (1977). He wrote a history of English cathedrals The Reformation of Cathedrals: Cathedrals in English Society, 1485-1603 (1988), and a comprehensive period history, The Peoples of the British Isles, from Prehistoric Times to 1688 (1991), and concluded with another study of cathedrals, Cathedral Under Siege: Cathedrals in English Society, 1600-1700 (1996). With another UM professor, he wrote The University of Minnesota, 1945-2000 (2000, co-author with Ann M. Pflaum)

Lehmberg has written many articles, some of which are listed here:

• Archbishop Grindal and the Prophesyings, Historical Magazine of the Protestant Episcopal Church (1965)
• Early Tudor Parliamentary Procedure: Provisos in the Legislation of the Reformation Parliament, E.H.R. (1966)
• Parliamentary Attainder in the Reign of Henry VIII, Historical Journal (1975)
• The Reformation of Choirs: Cathedral Musical Establishments in Tudor England, Tudor Rule and Revolution: Essays for G.R. Elton from his American Friends (1982)
• Henry VIII and the Cathedrals, Huntington Library Quarterly (1986)
• Writings of English Cathedral Clergy (1600-1700), Anglican Theological Review (1993)

Other Lehmberg articles appeared in Studies in the Renaissance, in The Historian, and in Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte. He wrote over 100 book reviews, and served on the editorial boards of The Historian and The Sixteenth Century Journal. He was president of the Midwest Conference on British Studies, and a member of the Council of the American Historical Association.

Academic and career honors

• Recipient of Fulbright Scholarship (1954-1956)
• Recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship (1956-1966)
• Recipient of British Academy grant (1974)
• Recipient of Folger Shakespeare Library grant (1974)
• Recipient of Guggenheim Fellowship (1985-1986)
• Awarded the Doctor of Letters degree by Cambridge University (1990)
• Elected Fellow of Society of Antiquaries of London (1997)

Music efforts

Lehmberg considered university training as an organist, but learned that his organ repertoire upon entering the University of Kansas was about equal to what he would be taught in that university's curriculum, so he pursued other liberal-arts themes, eventually falling into the concentrated study of history. He planned on using his Fulbright Scholarship to study the history of the Italian Renaissance, but did not receive approval to study in Italy because he had not bothered to learn sufficient Italian. Therefore he ended up in London, and while there he took organ lessons on the side, while pursuing a Ph.D. degree (a normal three-year course that he managed to complete in two years). He studied with eminent British organist Sir Boris Ord

Boris Ord

Boris Ord , born Bernhard Ord, was an English organist, composer and musical director best known as the choir master of King's College, Cambridge....

.

Lehmberg worked with choirs and church musical groups both at Austin and Duluth. He served on the board of Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra

The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra , based in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the United States' only full-time professional chamber orchestra...

and on the board of Concentus Musicus (which performed antique music on period instruments) until its demise. He was the music chairman and choir director of Duluth's St. Clemens Episcopal Church. He twice led the University's search for new heads of the university's Department of Music.

Personal life

When Lehmberg arrived in Austin for his first teaching job, a graduate student in one of his classes was majoring in Library Science, specializing in rare-books librarianship. He began dating her, and soon they were married (Phyllis). She was a native Texan, and resisted the 1969 move to Minnesota, but eventually became very happy there.