Donald F. Danker

Born 1922-07-22 Riverton, NE (USA)

Died 2005-02-14
Topeka, KS (USA)

Danker taught at a rural Nebraska school at age 17 before attending the University of Nebraska starting in 1941. His academic career was interrupted by service in World War II. He then returned to the University, where he obtained his PhD in history in 1955. From 1952 to 1963 Danker served as the archivist at the Nebraska State Historical Society. He then taught at Washburn University in Topeka, KS for a year, then returned to teach at the University of Nebraska and serve as historian with the NSHS. In 1967 he returned to Washburn again, retiring as professor there in 1972.

Danker published and edited numerous Nebraska History articles, including some based on the interviews of Native Americans by Eli S. Ricker. He also edited two important Nebraska memoirs: Luther North's recollections of his experiences with the Pawnee Scouts and ranching along the Dismal River with his brother Frank North and with William F. Cody, a memoir written at the request of George Bird Grinnell, but never published as such by Grinnell, entitled Man of the Plains: Recollections of Luther North, 1856-1882 (1961), and Mollie: The Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford in Nebraska and Colorado Territories, 1857-1866 (1959).

His personal papers are held at the Kansas Historical Society and include his wartime letters to his parents.

The Nebraska State Historical Society also has a Danker collection, "RG1370.AM: Donald Floyd Danker, 1922-2005."

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Places Lived

Riverton, NE
Lincoln, NE
Topeka, KS

Author Of

Nonfiction

Keywords

Local History; Nebraska--History; Nebraska State Historical Society--Employees and Curators

Education

University of Nebarska, Lincoln, Bachelors, Masters and Ph.D., 1955

Occupation

Archivist Educator

Places Worked

York College, York, NE 1949-1952
NE State Historical Society, Lincoln, NE, 1952-1963
Washburn University, Topeka, KS, 1967-1988

Bibliography

Man of the Plains Recollections of Luther North, 1856-1882. 1961. (editor)
Out of Old Nebraska. 1968.
Mollie: The Journal of Mollie Dorsey Sanford in Nebraska and Colorado Territories, 1857-1866. 1959, 1976. (editor)

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