David Curtis Skaggs Jr.

David Curtis Skaggs Jr. (born 23 March 1937 in Topeka, Kansas), is an American historian of the Colonial and Early Republic periods, who spent nearly his entire academic career at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio.

The son of David Curtis Skaggs Sr. and his wife Eleanor Elizabeth Baer Skaggs, David Skaggs attended the University of Kansas, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in 1959 and went on to obtain a Master of Arts degree in 1960 with a thesis on "Military contributions to the development of territorial Kansas."

He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1959 and served from 1960 to 1962 on active duty, becoming a first lieutenant.

Skaggs married Margo Clayton Tipton in 1961, with whom he had two sons and five grandchildren.

In 1965, he was appointed instructor in history at Bowling Green State University, where he rose through the academic ranks becoming assistant professor in 1966, associate professor in 1969, full professor in 1977, and professor emeritus in 2002.

Upon completing his military service, he attended Georgetown University, where in 1966 he earned his Ph.D. in history with a dissertation on "Democracy in Colonial Maryland, 1753-1776."

He served as visiting associate professor of history at the University of Wisconsin, Madison in 1971–72; William C. Foster Visiting Fellow at the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency; Distinguished Visiting Professor at the National Defense Intelligence College in 1989; Visiting Professor of Military History and Strategy at Air University in 1990–91; visiting professor at East Carolina University, and consultant faculty member at the United States Army Command and General Staff College, 1970–1990.