Philip L. Cantelon

Philip L. Cantelon is co-founder of History Associates and served as president from 1981 to 2006. Since then, he has served as the organization’s CEO and senior historian. He also serves on the board of directors. He is an expert on oral history, foundations, business and energy history, and the history of deregulation. He is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including The History of Consolidated Freightways, Inc. and CNF Transportation Inc., 1929-2000; The History of MCI, 1968-1988: The Early Years; The Roadway Story; and Crisis Contained: The Department of Energy at Three Mile Island.

He is the coeditor of Corporate Archives and History: Making the Past Work and The American Atom, both widely used college textbooks. His articles have appeared in Technology and Culture and American Heritage. Dr. Cantelon’s client list includes General Electric, the Kendall and GAR Foundations, Consolidated Edison Company, Texas Instruments Inc., MCI Communications Corporation, the American Furniture Hall of Fame, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and The Children’s Inn at NIH. He is a founding member of the National Council on Public History and the Society for History in the Federal Government. He received the Society’s Franklin D. Roosevelt Award for 2004.

Dr. Cantelon also plays an active role in the affairs past and present of Montgomery County, Maryland – he has served as chairman of the county’s Historic Preservation Commission and served as president of the county’s historical society. For nine years he taught contemporary American history at Williams College; he also held a Fulbright Professorship of American Civilization at Kyushu National University and Seinan Gakuin University in Japan. Dr. Cantelon is a graduate of Dartmouth College, earned his MA at the University of Michigan, and received a PhD in history from Indiana University.