Athan Theoharis

Athan George Theoharis (August 3, 1936 – July 3, 2021) was an American historian, professor of history at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. As well as his extensive teaching career, he was noteworthy as an expert on the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), J. Edgar Hoover, and U.S. intelligence agencies, having written and edited many books on these and related subjects.

Background Born in Milwaukee on August 3, 1936, to Greek immigrants George Theoharis and Adeline Konop,

The scope of his writings has extended to Cold War history, anti-communism in America, civil rights and the politics of government secrecy.

Grants and awards

Theoharis's grants and awards include: 1965, 1966: Grant from the Truman Institute for National and International Affairs 1971: Grant from the Institute for Humane Studies 1976: American Bar Association Gavel Award 1976: National Endowment for the Humanities summer fellowship 1979: Binkley-Stephenson Award 1980: Grant from the Field Foundation 1980: Albert Beveridge research grant 2002: Lawrence G. Haggerty Award for Research Excellence 2003: Wisconsin Academy of Arts, Science and Literature, fellow 2006: American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin's Eunice Z. Edgar Lifetime Achievement Award

Personal life and death

Theoharis married Nancy Artinian. They had three children: Jeanne Theoharis, Liz Theoharis, and George Theoharis.

In 1975, because of his work exploring the Truman and Eisenhower loyalty and security programs as well as his articles on FBI wiretapping, Theoharis was asked by the Church Committee to conduct research at presidential libraries. The Church Committee - the Senate select committee to study governmental operations with respect to intelligence activities - was formed by Senator Frank Church after Nixon administration, FBI, and CIA abuses became public. First without and then with qualified security clearances, Theoharis examined some presidential records relating to the FBI and White House at the Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson presidential libraries. He also examined some FBI records for the Church Committee at FBI headquarters.

Following this work, and changes made to the Freedom of Information Act in the 1970s, in 1976 Theoharis became a specialist in the history of the FBI. He focused on FBI records procedures, rather than individual FBI targets, leading to discoveries or further understandings of the complexities and uses of FBI office files (as opposed to "official" FBI files), the JUNE mail file, the National Security Electronic Surveillance Index Card File, Surreptitious Entries file, COMPIC file, and COMRAP file.

His work has led some of his graduate students also to embark on FBI research. Two of his former PhD students include Kenneth O'Reilly (FBI and HUAC) and Christopher Gerard (FBI and the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee). Several of his master's students also studied the FBI with him while taking PhDs elsewhere: David Williams (PhD, University of New Hampshire) studied the early history of the FBI; Francis MacDonnell (PhD, Harvard University) studied the FBI and the Fifth Column; Douglas M. Charles (PhD, University of Edinburgh) studied the FBI and the anti-interventionist movement of 1939–45, and the FBI's Obscene File. Charles R. Gallagher, S.J. (Boston College) credits Theoharis with inspiring an integration of FBI and intelligence sources into the study of Vatican diplomatic relations.

Books