Illinois State University History Professor Emeritus Carl J. Ekburg, who
now lives in Shepardstown, W. Va., has been named a Chevalier in the order
of the Palmes Académiques, an order founded almost 200 years ago by Napoleon
Bonaparte to honor devotion to and accomplishments in teaching scholarship
and research.
Ekburg, who taught at Illinois State from 1970 to 1998, is the author of several books, including "Colonial Ste. Genevieve: An Adventure on the Mississippi Frontier," which won the Illinois State Historical Society's Award for Superior Achievement in Scholarship and the Gilbert Chinard Prize awarded jointly by the Society for French Historical Studies and the Institute Francaise of Washington, D.C. He also received the Best Book Award of the French Colonial Historical Society.
The letter accompanying Ekburg's Palmes Académiques diploma said the
award was for his promotion and support of French language and culture.