The Journal of San Diego History
SAN DIEGO HISTORICAL SOCIETY QUARTERLY
April 1967, Volume 13, Number 2
Elvira L. Wittenberg, Editor
Abraham P. NasatirThis issue of The Journal of San Diego History is dedicated, with affection and admiration, to Dr. Abraham P. Nasatir, Professor of History and former Head of the Department of History, San Diego State College.
When the Trustees of the California State Colleges named Dr. Nasatir as recipient of the 1966 Outstanding Professor Award, they were giving public recognition to the reputation he has earned during the past forty years as a master teacher and an internationally famous scholar.
Dr. Nasatir earned the A.B., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees at the University of California, Berkeley, between 1921 and 1926. He is considered the outstanding authority on the Spanish in the Mississippi Valley, and the French in California. He has authored or co-authored ten books. His text on Latin America, with Helen M. Bailey, now in its second edition, has been translated into Polish and Spanish. He has published more than sixty monographs, articles, and documentary studies in numerous co-operative works and important periodicals.
Dr. Nasatir is a former National Councillor of Phi Alpha Theta, and was a member of its National Book Awards Committee from 1962 to 1966. He is also a past president of the Pacific Coast Council of Latin American Studies and of the Pacific Coast Branch of the American Historical Association. He has read papers, chaired sessions and acted as panel participant in at least fifteen of the most important historical associations of the United States.
His book reviews, numbering some 120, have appeared in over fifteen scholarly journals. His memberships on various Boards of Directors, local and national, are legion, including those of the House of Pacific Relations, San Diego Historical Society, United Jewish Federation (past president), Western Region of Jewish Educational Association, and Pacific Coast Jewish Welfare Board. He has served locally as Vice-Consul of Paraguay, Vice-Consul of Chile, and, for ten years, Secretary of the Consular Corps.
Dr. Nasatir also serves the San Diego History Center as Historian and Library Advisor. Through his advice and guidance, tremendous strides have been made in the past two years toward making the Society’s Research Library at Serra Museum outstanding in scope and quality.
Among his many honors, Dr. Nasatir has been a Fulbright Scholar in France, Fulbright Lecturer at the University of Chile, and has been appointed a Native Sons Travelling Fellow, Social Science Research Council Fellow, and Huntington Library Fellow.
Quite a fellow.
