James B Rhoads

American senior official who served as fifth Archivist of the United States from 1968 to 1979. Rhoads received his B.A., in 1950, and M.A., in 1952, from the University of California at Berkeley. He earned his Ph.D. in History from American University in Washington, DC in 1965. Rhoads joined the National Archives in 1952. Under Rhoads, Prologue — the National Archives quarterly publication — was founded, and the regional archives system was expanded. It was also during his tenure that Americans rapidly developing interest in genealogical records brought a large influx of family history researchers to the National Archives for the first time. After leaving the National Archives in 1979, Rhoads taught at Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, before retiring. Rhoads was married for 59 years to Sadie Angela (Handy) Rhoads. Angela, as she was known, died on 8 January 2007 from Lewy Bodies Dementia. They had three children. Rhoads died on 7 April 2015 at age 86 in Leavenworth, Kansas. Link to Wikipedia biography Read less