{{short description|American historian and author}} {{Infobox academic | name = Lyle Koehler | image = | caption = | birth_date ={{birth date|1944|3|6}} | birth_place = Sparta, Wisconsin, US | death_date = {{death date and age|2015|7|30|1944|3|6}} | education = BA, 1966, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse <br> MA, 1968, University of Cincinnati | thesis_title = | thesis_url = | thesis_year = | doctoral_advisor = | academic_advisors = | years_active = | known_for = | spouse =Kathy Hofmeister |discipline = <!--major academic discipline – e.g. Physicist, Sociologist, New Testament scholar, Ancient Near Eastern Linguist--> | sub_discipline = <!--academic discipline specialist area – e.g. Sub-atomic research, 20th-century Danish specialist, Pauline research, Arcadian and Ugaritic specialist--> | workplaces = University of Cincinnati <br> New Mexico State University | notable_works = A Search for Power: The 'Weaker Sex' in Seventeenth Century New England | awards = 1981 Pulitzer Prize for History finalist | website = }} '''Lyle P. Koehler''' (March 6, 1944 – July 30, 2015) was an American historian and author.
==Early life and education== Koehler was born in Sparta, Wisconsin on March 6, 1944, to parents Irene and Lyle Koehler Sr.<ref name = "obit">{{cite news |title=Lyle P. Koehler |url=https://lacrossetribune.com/lifestyles/announcements/obituaries/lyle-p-koehler/article_73433a34-cf30-52a3-92db-651f4d35b7be.html |access-date=December 27, 2020 |newspaper=La Crosse Tribune |date=July 31, 2015}}</ref> He attended Black River Falls High School for two years and finished at Sparta High School before enrolling at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse.<ref name ="Boschert">{{cite news |last1=Boschert |first1=Terence |title=He Read 500 Books In Past Year |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66147902/lyle-koehler/ |access-date=December 27, 2020 |newspaper=La Crosse Tribune |date=February 23, 1964|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> Koehler earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966 and his Master's degree in 1968 from the University of Cincinnati.<ref name = "about">{{cite news |title=About people |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66147682/lyle-koehler/ |access-date=December 27, 2020 |newspaper=La Crosse Tribune |date=May 17, 1981|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> He worked towards a PhD in philosophy for three years before saying "I began generating history and never got the PhD."<ref>{{cite news |title=Area Historian Proud Of His Pulitzer Finish |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66147947/lyle-koehler/ |access-date=December 27, 2020 |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=April 15, 1981|via=newspapers.com}}</ref>
==Career== Upon completing his master's degree, Koehler began working as the director of tutorial and referral services at the University of Cincinnati.<ref name ="x">{{cite news |title=Ex-Cincinnati writer's work aided series |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66147404/lyle-koehler/ |access-date=December 27, 2020 |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=February 14, 1988|via=newspapers.com}}</ref> During the summer of 1973, Koehler began his research in various New England courthouses reading arrest records of 17th-century Colonial women.<ref name = "Garloch">{{cite news |last1=Garloch |first1=Karen |title=Criminals Fascinate Scholar |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/66147613/lyle-koehler/ |access-date=December 27, 2020 |newspaper=The Cincinnati Enquirer |date=February 16, 1981 |via=newspapers.com}}</ref> His work accumulated into his first book, ''A Search for Power: The 'Weaker Sex' in Seventeenth Century New England,'' which was a finalist for the 1981 Pulitzer Prize for History.<ref>{{cite web |title=Finalist: A Search for Power: The 'Weaker Sex' in Seventeenth Century New England, by Lyle Koehler (Illinois) |url=https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/lyle-koehler |website=pulitzer.org |access-date=December 27, 2020}}</ref> Following this, Koehler left Cincinnati and became an editor and technical writer at New Mexico State University. While there, he wrote his second work, ''Black Peoples: A Chronology and Bibliography, 1787-1982,'' for the 1988 Cincinnati Arts Consortium. It "provided valuable details, dates and names for this series on black leaders."<ref name ="x"/>
Koehler died on July 30, 2015, at Lakeview Health Center in West Salem.<ref name = "obit"/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1976–2000|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Koehler, Lyle}} Category:1944 births Category:2015 deaths Category:University of Wisconsin–La Crosse alumni Category:University of Cincinnati alumni Category:University of Cincinnati faculty Category:New Mexico State University faculty Category:20th-century American historians Category:20th-century American male writers Category:American male non-fiction writers