Leo Schelbert, born March 16, 1929, in Kaltbrunn, Canton St. Gallen, is a citizen of Steinen, Canton Schwyz, Switzerland. After his schooling he taught at the Progymnasium Rebstein from 1955 to 1959, then pursued graduate studies in New York City where he received his Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University in 1966. From 1963 to 1969 he taught at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey, then spent two years doing research in Switzerland. From 1971 to 1999 he taught at the University of Illinois at Chicago of which he is now professor emeritus, but continues working with Ph.D. students. He has authored or edited nine books and has published some fifty scholarly articles. He is married to Virginia Branin Schelbert who is a Nurse, a Nurse Practitioner and a Professor of Nursing at North Park University in Chicago. They are the parents of three sons and a daughter and members of the Mount Holly Meeting of the Society of Friends.