Background and Teaching
He received his B.A. from the College of William and Mary, where he was initiated into Theta Delta Chi. He earned his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University in 1969. He served in the United States Army as a captain and taught for three years at West Point until 1972.
That year Ellis joined the faculty at Mount Holyoke College; in 1979 he was made full professor. He is also Ford Foundation Professor. His work has concentrated on the founding fathers of the United States, including biographies of John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, the revolution and the early federalist years.
Ellis served as dean of faculty at Mount Holyoke (1980-1990); following that, he was named by the trustees to the endowed Ford Foundation Chair in history. For part of 1984, he also served as Acting President while President Elizabeth Topham Kennan was on leave. Ellis was suspended without pay (due to controversy over his alleged service in Vietnam) from his endowed chair in 2001; he was reappointed to the chair in 2005.
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