Professor Robert William Heussler (1924-1984) was an American historian who made his special subject the history of the British Colonial Service in various parts of the Empire. His academic career in the United States included a doctorate from Princeton University, 1961, the Presidency of Trenton State College, 1968-1970, and the post of Professor of History at the State University of New York for ten years from 1973. Concurrent positions included Consultant, Foreign Area Training Programme, London, from 1965, Visiting Fellow, Centre for International Studies, Princeton, 1970-1971, and Research Associate, St. Anthony's College, Oxford, 1972-1973. He was a member of the Royal Commonwealth Society and the Anglo-American Association. His books include Yesterdays Rulers: The Making of the British Colonial Service (London, Oxford University Press, 1963; Syracuse, New York, Syracuse University Press, 1963); The British in Northern Nigeria (London, Oxford University Press, 1968); British Tanganyika: An Essay and Documents on District Administration (Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Press, 1971); British Rule in Malaya: the Malayan Civil Service and its Predecessors, 1867-1942 (Oxford, Clio Press, 1981); and Completing a Stewardship, the Malayan Civil Service, 1942-1957 (London/Westport, Conn., Greenwood, 1983). He married in 1957 and had four children.