Harold Moser, former editor of the Papers of Andrew Jackson project and a retired faculty member in the Department of History, died April 4. He was 77.
Moser came to UT in 1979 and served in the history department for almost twenty-five years.
He received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history from Wake Forest University and earned a doctorate in American history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. While a graduate student at Wisconsin, he was instrumental in the research and writing of Volume I of The History of Wisconsin.
Moser’s more than thirty-year career was carried out under the auspices of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission’s mandate to publish the papers of national political figures. From 1971 to 1979 he was a documentary editor and then editor of the correspondence series at the Daniel Webster Papers Project at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, and produced five volumes of Webster’s correspondence.
From 1979 until his retirement in 2003 he was editor and director of the Papers of Andrew Jackson, first at the Hermitage in Nashville and then at UT. Under his direction, the project published volumes two to six of the Jackson Papers. He also published two book-length bibliographies of Daniel Webster and President John Tyler.
“Harold was a dedicated scholar, a proficient editor and expert steward of the Andrew Jackson Papers project, and for me personally a wise counselor and faithful friend over many years,” said Daniel Feller, current editor of the Papers of Andrew Jackson.
Moser is survived by his wife, Carolyn French Moser; son Andrew and his family; daughter Anna Elizabeth and her family; four grandchildren; and other siblings and relatives.