Gary DeKrey
Gary DeKrey
Professor of History
Ph.D., Princeton, 1978
Britain, early modern Europe, colonial America
x3165
dekrey@stolaf.edu


Gary De Krey grew up in the same small Midwestern community that produced Lawrence Welk. Like Welk, he loves music; but he doesn't polka. He did play baritone saxophone in Mitey Johnson's band at St. Olaf. After trying out math and English majors, he became a history major instead. Fortunately, as a boy, he had read Richard Halliburton's Complete Book of Marvels and knew what to expect. He graduated in 1971. When he arrived at Princeton for graduate school, De Krey decided to study English history because the American historian he intended to work with had just skipped town. He also studied the Reformation and finally became a Lutheran. Somebody told him, when he was a student, about Samuel Johnson's comment that "when a man is tired of London he is tired of life." Dr. Johnson may have been wrong; but after writing a book and several articles about seventeenth-century London, De Krey hasn't figured out why. He is currently writing about London and the Restoration (1660-88). He married Catherine Doherty at Princeton; and, in 1985, he became the father of Will, at Colgate, where he previously taught. He enjoys biking, hiking, state parks, and exploring rural Minnesota and Wisconsin. Will is helping him improve his computer skills.