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Brigadier General
Wilbert H. Ruenheck
Permanent Professor 1961–1967
B.S., Washington University, St. Louis
M.A., New York University
Ph.D., New York University
Wil Ruenheck, the Academy’s 8th Permanent Professor, was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1917. He graduated from Kemper Military School, Boonville, MO, in 1936 and from Washington University, St. Louis, in 1938, at which time he received his commission from the Army ROTC program. As a young man, he was a talented first baseman playing in the minor leagues for the St. Louis Cardinals. He entered active duty in 1941 and served throughout World War II in supply depots in Oklahoma City, Kansas City, and New York City. After separating in 1946, he studied History at New York University, earning his Master’s degree in 1949 and PhD in History and Economics in 1951. He was recalled to active duty in 1951, in the Air Force, and served in Japan during the Korean War, first as a staff officer in HQ Far Eastern Air Forces, Tokyo, Japan, then for two years in the Joint HQ, Far East Command. Afterward he was assigned for three years as Assistant Professor of Air Science at Washington State University, Pullman. He joined the faculty of the Air Force Academy Department of History in 1957 and in 1960 was appointed Head of the department; a year later, he was appointed a Permanent Professor. He guided the History Department through the establishment of the History major. From 1966 to 1967 he was on sabbatical to the Academy’s Command Historian’s office, where he wrote a history of the first 25 years of the United States Air Force, which paved the way for more comprehensive tomes by subsequent authors. He retired in 1967 and was promoted to brigadier general in 1993.
Upon retirement, Wil was a sought-after motivational speaker for over two decades for many civic clubs, state, and national organizations. In later years, he was a founding member of the non-profit Academy Research and Development Institute, dedicated to the endowment of civilian professorship chairs at the Academy. Wil Ruenheck died in 2008 and is buried in the Air Force Academy Cemetery.