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Professor Matt Meier, who wrote on Hispanic history, dies at 86
Sunday August 17, 2003SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) Matt S. Meier, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Santa Clara who wrote more than a dozen books on Mexican Americans and other Hispanics in the United States, has died. He was 86.
Meier died Monday at a hospital in Santa Clara, Calif., just west of San Jose, of complications from leukemia, his son Phil said.
Meier, who twice served as chairman of the history department at the University of Santa Clara before retiring in 1989, was a prolific writer.
His best-known works include ``The Chicanos: A History of Mexican Americans,'' written with Feliciano Rivera, ``Mexican American Biographies: A Historical Dictionary'' and ``Bibliography of Mexican American History.''
The New Republic praised ``The Chicanos'', describing it as neither pretentious nor polemical.
``Rather the authors in a quiet but determined way want to educate their readers, presumably the Anglos,'' a reviewer for the magazine wrote.
A native of Covington, Ky., Meier served in the Army during World War II before earning a bachelor's degree at the University of Miami. He later earned a master's at Mexico City College and a doctorate at University of California at Berkeley.
He joined the University of Santa Clara in 1963.
Meier is survived by his sons Phil, Gary, Patrick, Paul and Pepe. He also is survived by five grandchildren.
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