Thomas M. Hatfield

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Personal Information

Thomas M. Hatfield is director of the Military History Institute in the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History at the University of Texas at Austin where he is Dean Emeritus of Continuing Education. After earning his master's degree in history and doctorate from UT Austin, he was a college president for eight years. He was the founding president of Austin Community College, co-founded UT’s esteemed Normandy Scholar Program, and past-president of the English-Speaking Union and the global University Professional and Continuing Education Association. Hatfield enlisted in the Texas Army National Guard as a teenager and was honorably discharged from the United States Army as a captain in military intelligence. He is the author of Rudder: From Leader to Legend, the acclaimed biography of Earl Rudder, hero of WW II, commissioner of the General Land Office, and reform-minded president of Texas A&M in the 1960s. Hatfield owns and operates a family ranch near his hometown of Medina, Texas. An advisor to the Tom Lea Institute, his hobbies include leading tours across battlefields of the Second World War.