History Faculty and Staff
Retired Faculty
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Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus
Arnoldo De León served as a member of the Angelo State University Department of History from 1973-2015. After acquiring his undergraduate education at ASU, De León enrolled at Texas Christian University where he earned his advanced degrees: M.A. (1971) and Ph.D. (1974).
At ASU, he taught classes in American History, Latin American History, Mexican American History, and Texas History. A specialist in Chicano History, he published widely in the field, having authored or co-authored some twenty-one books, sixty-two essays (in addition to numerous other minor publications), and seventy-six book reviews. The University of Texas Press published his doctoral dissertation under the title They Called Them Greaser (1983). Today, it is regarded as classic in Tejano history.
De León attained many distinctions during the course of his career at ASU. He spent 1986 at the University of Houston as a Visiting Scholar; held the C.J. “Red” Davidson Professorship for 28 years, and in 2013 was honored by the National Association of Chicana/Chicano Studies (NACCS) Texas with the “Premio Estrella de Aztlán Life Time Achievement Award” for his contributions to Tejano history.”
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Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus
Prof. Endress studied modern European history and graduated from Vanderbilt University ( B.A., 1961) and Tulane University (M.A. 1965, Ph.D. 1968). While on active duty in the United States Army from 1965 to 1969 he taught at the United States Military Academy. He came to A.S.U in 1969. He served as head of the Department of History from 1973 to 1999 and from 2000 to 2004 and as interim dean of the College of Liberal and Fine Arts in 1999-2000, and 2004-2005. He taught Western Civilization and advanced and graduate courses in Greek and Roman History, Modern European History, Military History and Historiography. In 1990-1991, he was visiting professor of strategy at the USAF Air War College and briefly returned to active duty during Operation Desert Storm. He retired from A.S.U. in 2009. During his career Prof. Endress remained in the Army Reserve and served in a variety of assignments at the Military Academy, The Command and General Staff College, Headquarters Department of the Army and The United States Army Center of Military History. He retired in the rank of Colonel. He is married to Margaret “Peggy” Zavada Endress. They have three daughters.
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Retired professor of history and president emeritus.
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David Dewar was a professor at Angelo State from 2007 to 2019. His teaching specialties were colonial America, early national America, and the U.S. Constitution. While at Angelo State, he published a variety of articles and book chapters in journals and edited volumes about native Americans in early America, the early fur trade, and early American business.
Dewar earned his Bachelor of Science in Journalism at Northern Illinois University (1975), his Master of Arts in History at Northeastern Illinois University (1993), and his Ph.D. from The University of Kansas (2005). Before coming to ASU, Dewar was Assistant Director of the Humanities and Western Civilization Program at Kansas.
He wasn’t always an academic. Dewar created a career in the private sector working for years in corporate communication at Cessna Aircraft Company, Wichita, Kansas and The Northern Trust Company, Chicago, Illinois. He owned a small, print-oriented advertising agency in Chicago before beginning his graduate education in history.
Service to his profession, the university, the community, and his students was Dewar’s particular joy. He served as the history department Faculty Senator for half his tenure at ASU and was elected vice-president and president of the Faculty Senate. He won the ASU President’s Award for Distinguished Service in 2015.
Dewar continues to teach dual-credit students online. He and his wife live in Austin, TX.
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Dennis Pate holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of California, Los Angeles. A native of San Jose, California, he served four years in the Air Force. He has been a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Munich and a Research Fellow at the Institute for European History in Mainz, Germany. He taught European and American history at Angelo State for 36 years, specializing in medieval and early modern Europe. He is now retired, and he and his wife travel extensively.
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R. Gary Pumphrey was the geography professor at Angelo State University from 2006 to 2019. He taught Physical, Human, World Regional, Fundamentals of Geography, and Regional Geography of North America. Dr. Pumphrey earned his Bachelor’s, Masters, and Ph.D. from Texas Tech University. Research areas included urban and rural water conservation, and attitudes regarding voluntary and mandatory municipal water conservation policy. His dissertation was the basis of a National Science Foundation grant ($748,000) that looked at water conservation throughout the U.S. Several journal articles were published as a result of the study. He was also a Co-Principal Investigator on a grant from the National Council for Social Studies for the Enhancement of Geographic Literacy that introduced ways for in-service educators to incorporate geography into their public school curriculum. He is currently researching baseball in West Texas from the late 1800’s to the early 1900’s. He currently lives in Lubbock.
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Dr. John Wheeler, Ph.D.
Retired professor of history
John McDaniel Wheeler was a member of the ASU history faculty for thirty-five years, between 1971 and 2006. A native of Camden, Arkansas, he received a B.A. from Hendrix College in Conway, Arkansas in 1963, an M.A. from the University of Arkansas in 1966, and after two years’ service teaching history in Spartanburg, S.C. High School, he began doctoral studies at Tulane University which culminated in a Ph.D. in 1976. He majored in U.S. history (with specialization in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries) and his supporting field was English history.
At Angelo State, Dr. Wheeler taught U.S. survey courses, advanced undergraduate courses in the Civil War, the Gilded Age, and the Progressive era as well as graduate courses in the same periods. He directed several Master’s theses. On occasion he taught an undergraduate survey of English history.
Since retiring, Dr. Wheeler has maintained residences both in San Angelo and in his hometown of Camden, Arkansas, where he has been active in the preservation of historic neighborhoods. His favorite places are the historic neighborhood where he grew up and the West Texas Collection at ASU.
