William S. Dudley is a former Director of the Naval History and Heritage Command. After his retirement in 2004, he wrote “Maritime Maryland: A History,” and co-authored, with Scott Harman, “The Naval War of 1812: America’s Second War of Independence.” His most recent book, published in April 2021, is “Inside the U.S. Navy of 1812-1815.” The Naval Historical Foundation presented him with the Commodore D. W. Knox Lifetime Achievement Award in Naval History in 2014. Dr. Dudley currently serves on the Board of Trustees of the National Maritime Historical Society. He is at work on his next project, “The Antebellum U.S. Navy, 1816-1861.”
William served in the US Navy from 1959 to 1963. He earned a doctorate in history from Columbia University in 1972.
