death_date death_place children birth_place parents birth_date spouse yearsactive article_title name occupation alma_mater
5 january 2006 beaumont , texas emily lang rhine new york city new york , usa edward and estelle lang 16 august 1921 elizabeth brian lang 1956-1984 herbert h. lang
 herbert howard lang historian professor at texas a & m university , university of texas at austin
herbert h. lang

herbert howard lang , known as herb lang -lrb- august 16 , 1921 -- january 5 , 2006 -rrb- , was an historian of the american west who spent nearly all of his academic career at texas a&m university in college station , texas .
lang was born in new york city to edward and estelle lang .
he served in the united states navy during world war ii , when he met his wife of fifty-eight years , the late elizabeth brian lang .
after the war , lang earned his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees and in 1954 his ph.d. from the university of texas at austin .
his dissertation topic was `` nineteenth century historians of the gulf states '' .
lang first taught at the new mexico institute of mining and technology in socorro , new mexico .
this first assignment -lrb- 1954 -- 1956 -rrb- proved fortuitous for lang in that he became a scholar of the mining frontier of the trans-mississippi west .
in 1956 , lang joined the tamu history faculty .
he was elevated to full professor in 1965 .
in his later academic years , lang was a founder of the tamu honors program and was the graduate-student history advisor under department chairman henry c. dethloff .
in 1970 , lang received an `` achievement award '' from the tamu association of former students .
at the ceremony , lang said that liberal arts instruction should `` liberate man from the tyranny of out-moded man-made habits , assumptions , and institutions ... restrict the development of his highest potential . ''
the remark is similar to thomas jefferson 's swearing to god `` eternal hostility to every form of tyranny over the mind of man '' .
lang edited and wrote the introduction of the book , `` pat nixon of texas : autobiography of a doctor '' , by pat ireland nixon -lrb- 1883 -- 1965 -rrb- , no relation to the former first lady of the united states .
lang wrote the article `` fort worth 's role in the origins of the helium industry '' in the `` year book '' of the west texas historical association .
lang wrote `` uranium mining and the aec : the birth pangs of a new industry '' in `` business history review '' .
one of lang 's understudies , dan louie flores -lrb- born 1948 -rrb- , acknowledges his debt to his mentor in his 2001 book , `` the natural west : environmental history in the great plains and rocky mountains . ''
flores writes that lang `` not only introduced me to environmental history but handed down to those of us who studied the west with him the legacy of walter prescott webb . ''
on his retirement in 1984 , tamu named lang a professor emeritus .
he and his wife retired to brenham , the seat of washington county , texas .
he died at the age of eighty-four in beaumont , the seat of jefferson county .
survivors were a daughter , emily lang rhine -lrb- born 1949 -rrb- , and a grandson , eric jonathan rhine , both of beaumont .
the langs are interred at prairie lea cemetery in brenham .
