Bill Stinchcombe’s colleagues described him as an honest man who had high standards for his students and loved to read.

Stinchcombe was passionate about his areas of expertise but was also well read in areas beyond what his teaching required, said Stephen Webb, a professor emeritus of history at Syracuse University.

“It was a bit dangerous trying to get into his office because of the piles of recently published books everywhere, each of which Bill was prepared to summarize, and a few of which he would actually recommend,” Webb said.

Stinchcombe, a professor emeritus of history, died Wednesday due to complications related to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. He joined the faculty at SU in 1967 as an assistant professor. Stinchcombe was named associate professor in 1971, a full professor in 1979, and professor emeritus in 2009. He previously chaired the history department, and was formerly the director of the graduate programs in history and international relations.

Though Stinchcombe could appear to be a gruff man at times, Margaret Susan Thompson said she knew Stinchcombe as a very caring and supportive person.

“I had cancer in the year 2000 and he was one of the people who visited me most frequently and was there for me as I was going through a difficult time in my life,” said Thompson, an associate professor of history and political science.

Stinchcombe was also on the search committee when Thompson was hired at SU. She said she remembers having a very lively and funny conversation with Stinchcombe at a dinner at that time.

In the classroom, Thompson said Stinchcombe had high expectations for his students.

“If you were not a student who was willing to work hard you might not care for his class,” she said. “He put in the work as a teacher and expected his students to do the same.”

Roger Sharp, a professor emeritus of history, also described Stinchcombe as “an omnivorous reader.”

“Most people that knew Bill would remark on his remarkable ability to read widely,” he said. “Inevitably if you would go talk to Bill about a book that came out recently he would say, ‘Oh I’m reading it now,’ or ‘I read it last week.’”

Sharp was in his second year of teaching at SU when Stinchcombe was hired. There was a lot of overlap in their areas of expertise—Sharp’s was in late 18^th century domestic politics, while Stinchcombe’s was in 18^th century American diplomatic history. But, Sharp said Stinchcombe would also teach courses on diplomatic history through the history of the United States, which meant lots of responsibilities for reading books and articles.

In addition, Sharp and Stinchcombe would work together on PhD committees since they both taught graduate courses.

Off campus, Sharp knew Stinchcombe as a family man. Sharp’s and Stinchcombe’s children were roughly the same age, so the two families would do things together while the kids were growing up, Sharp said.

One afternoon when their kids were in elementary school, Sharp got some help from Stinchcombe setting up a swing set with many pieces that required assembling.

“Bill spent the better part of the day trying to piece this thing together and we finally got it together but I couldn’t have done it by myself,” Sharp said.

His colleagues said Stinchombe, and his contributions to SU, will be missed.

Said Sharp: “He was an influential voice in the history department.”

Published on June 15, 2014 at 3:20 pm

Contact Brett: blsamuel@syr.edu | @Brett_Samuels27