Oral History Interview, B. Robert Tabachnick (1302)

Abstract

In his February 6, 2013 interview, Bob Tabachnick (BRT) summarizes his early life experiences and his academic career. His parents were recent immigrants to the U.S. (1912) who had little formal education, but BRT and his two older brothers all completed Ph.D.s. BRT discovered a love of teaching early; he taught for six years at the primary level after completing graduate study at Columbia Teachers College. After completing his doctoral studies at Stanford, he came to UW-Madison in 1959 as an Assistant Professor of Education. BRT’s entire tenured career was at UW-Madison. He participated in many overseas educational projects which took him to Nigeria, Uganda, Sierra Leone, Botswana, and Namibia. BRT was a member of the UW-Madison African Studies Program for some three decades and served two stints as elected Program Chair. This interview was conducted for inclusion in the UW-Madison Archives and Records Management Oral History Program as part of the African Studies oral history project.