Nancy Lyman Roelker (June 15, 1915 - November 27, 1993) was an American historian and educator whose focus was 16th-century French history.^[1] Her devotion to mentoring graduate students was recognized with the American Historical Association creating the Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award.^[2]

Nancy Lyman Roelker was one of two daughters born inWarwick, Rhode Island, to William Greene Roelker, and Anna (Koues) Roelker.

William Greene Roelker's family line traces all the way back to the earliest settlers in Rhode Island, and includes numbers of prominent community leaders and governors. When he died suddenly in 1953 he was Director of the Rhode Island Historical Society where he greatly expanded its holdings.^[3]

Nancy Roelker received her A.B. fromRadcliffe College in 1936, where she was a member ofPhi Beta Kappa.^[1] Like her father, Roelker received her A.M. fromHarvard University, in 1937, and 16 years later, her Ph.D. also at Harvard, in 1953.^[1]

Between her master’s degree and her Ph.D Roelker studied withAlfred North Whitehead and in 1940 presented a dissertation she had completed in two years,An Application Of Whitehead’s Concepts Of Conformity and Novelty to the Philosophy of History.^[4] Because the faculty did not believe she could have done it, they refused to accept it and delayed her doctoral progress.^[5]

She taught European history from 1937 to 1941 atConcord Academy inConcord, Massachusetts, and from 1941 to 1963 atWinsor School in Boston, Massachusetts. Soon after she transitioned to university teaching, her career expanded. Starting as an assistant professor atTufts University in Medford, Massachusetts in 1963, she was promoted to associate professor in 1965 and full professor in 1969. In 1971 Roelker became professor of European history atBoston University and continued until her retirement in 1980.

Though Nancy Roelker did not formally teach at Rhode Island’sBrown University, in her retirement she pursued opportunities to mentor graduate students there.

Her personal and academic papers are part of the John Hays Library Special Collections.^[6] Roelker died in her family's ancestral homeEast Greenwich, Rhode Island, in late 1993.^[1] She was 78.^[1]

• The Paris of Henry of Navarre, as Seen by Pierre de l'Etoile (1958)^[1]
• Queen of Navarre, Jeanne d'Albret: 1528–1572. Cambridge Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.ISBN 0-674-74150-1.
• One King, One Faith: The Parlement of Paris and the Religious Reformations of the Sixteenth Century. Berkley: University of California Press. 1996.ISBN 0-520-08626-0.

In 1960 and 1970 she received research grants from theAmerican Philosophical Society.

In 1964 she was elected to theAmerican Academy of Arts and Sciences.^[7]

In 1965–66 she was aGuggenheim Fellow.^[8]

In 1970 she received the Distinguished Achievement Medal from the Radcliffe Graduate Society.^[9]

In 1985 she was awarded theGold Medal of Paris for contributions to that city’s history.^[10]

After her death in 1993, two organizations established awards in Roelker’s name:

• The Nancy Lyman Roelker Mentorship Award through theAmerican Historical Association gives recognition annually to educators who excel in mentoring.^[11]
• The Nancy Lyman Roelker Prize through theSixteenth Century Society.^[12]

• 1915 births
• 1993 deaths
• 20th-century American women academics
• 20th-century American academics
• 20th-century American historians
• People from Warwick, Rhode Island
• Radcliffe College alumni
• Harvard University alumni
• American women historians
• Historians from Rhode Island

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