Edwin Michael and Shelley Osmun Baranowski Endowed Scholarship in History

The Edwin Michael and Shelley Osmun Baranowski Endowed Scholarship for History was established in 2019 in loving tribute to Shelley’s husband, Ed, who passed away on July 23, 2015. Also, it is established in recognition of the vital research funding Shelley received while teaching in The University of Akron’s Department of History.

Born and raised in Utica, NY, Ed received his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1968 from Hamilton College and his juris doctorate degree in 1971 from The University of Virginia School of Law. Ed attained a national reputation as an intellectual property law attorney, initially at the New York City law firm of Kenyon and Kenyon and later, as a partner at Porter, Wright, Morris and Arthur in Columbus, Ohio. Listed among the top 100 lawyers In the U.S. in his field for several years, Ed was also an accomplished painter, sculptor and craftsman who loved gadgets and computers before they became mass market items.

Shelley received her Ph.D. in Religion from Princeton University in 1980 and taught history at Kenyon College from 1985-1989, and at The University of Akron from 1989 until her 2013 retirement. She received two summer study-abroad fellowships from The University of Akron Research Committee and research stipends from UA’s Department of History. She was also the recipient of two National Endowment for the Humanities grants, the first of which led to The Sanctity of Rural Life: Nobility, Protestantism and Nazism in Weimar Prussia (Oxford: Oxord University Press, 1995). Continued support of research stipends from the Department of History and a second grant for University Teachers from the National Endowment for the Humanities ultimately led to two acclaimed book publications by Cambridge University Press: Strength Through Joy: Consumerism and Mass Tourism in the Third Reich in 2004, and Nazi Empire: German Imperialism and Colonialism from Bismarck to Hitler in 2011. In addition to other scholarly books and publications, Shelley served on the advisory editorial board of H-German and co-edited H-Travel with Bertram Gordon.

The Edwin Michael and Shelley Osmun Baranowski Endowed Scholarship for History will provide scholarship assistance to deserving students who are majoring or minoring in History. Scholarship award decisions will be made by the Department of History’s Scholarship Committee.