Honoring Veterans: Navy Veteran William Wright Abbot III

William Wright Abbot III was born in May 1922, and was an American archivist and historian known for his work in compiling and editing The Washington Papers. However, before his illustrious academic career, he served in the Navy during World War II.

Abbot joined the Navy in 1943 after graduating from the University of Georgia. He served in the Pacific theater, as well as the Mediterranean and Adriatic Seas. His service was aboard small naval ships, including the USS Crouter (DE 11), SC 676 and SC 504. At just 22, he was in charge of SC-504, a 110-foot submarine chaser.

After his military service, Abbot used the G.I. Bill to study history at Duke University, where he earned master’s and doctorate degrees. Later, he taught celestial navigation to young naval cadets at Duke University in spring 1946.

For nearly 50 years, Abbot worked as a historian and teacher. In 1966, he joined the University of Virginia as the James Madison Professor of History and twice held the role of Chairman of the Corcoran Department of History. He was also the chief editor of The Papers of George Washington from 1977 to 1992.

Abbot died in August 2009. He was 87.

We honor his service.

Nominate a Veteran for Honoring Veterans

Do you want to light up the face of a special Veteran? Have you been wondering how to tell your Veteran they are special to you? VA’s Honoring Veterans social media feature is an opportunity to highlight your Veteran and his/her service.

It’s easy to nominate a Veteran. All it takes is an email to newmedia@va.gov with as much information as you can put together, along with some good photos. Visit our blog post about nominating to learn how to create the best submission.

Veterans History Project

This Honoring Veterans profile was created with interviews submitted to the Veterans History Project. The project collects, preserves, and makes accessible the personal accounts of American war Veterans so that future generations may hear directly from Veterans and better understand the realities of war. Find out more at http://www.loc.gov/vets/.

A portion of this story was generated by AI. None of the data we reported included personal or sensitive information, and it was fact-checked and edited by a human copy editor prior to publishing.

Prompt Engineer: Joseph Torralba

Editor: Tayler Rairigh

Researcher: Jacoryn Whatley

Graphic Designer: Raquel Ortega