Department of History
Faculty

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Cobb, Lawrence
Professor of History
T: 405-208-5267
F: 405-208-5200
PCAS WC 225
lcobb@okcu.edu

Education:
B.A., Duke University
M.A., Ph.D., Emory University

Background:
Prepared at Duke (BA, 1965 history major, literature minor) and Emory (MA 1974, Ph.D. 1978, in history, minors in East Asia and European Socialism and Communism), Dr. Cobb teaches the "World Civilization" and the "American Mind" surveys. His Upper Division courses include "History of Warfare," "America in the Middle East," "Contemporary Japan," "American Cinema," and "American Popular Culture."

If you cannot tell what Cobb's academic specialty is from that list, it is because he really does not have one any more. Duke and Emory trained him as a military historian who really focused on American social and intellectual and social history, but when he came to OCU's History Department, as the junior member 15 years ago he had to make himself useful and teach whatever the Department needed.

Every year Cobb teaches for OCU in Singapore, offering a course he designed in 1989 and has presented ever since, "America, Economics, Geopolitics, and the Future."

Along with hundreds of happy and newly enlightened students Cobb found a wife, Christine, in Singapore. An accomplished businesswoman in international jewelry, Chris is currently completing her doctorate at OU in Higher Education.

Cobb grew up in Atlanta, in the era of racially segregated schools, attending the all-white "Jewish" public high school (the backfield his senior year was Lafkowitz, Povalatis, Finklestein, and Brown). "Driving Miss Daisy" was filmed in the neighborhoods where he grew up ("I kissed a girl by that tree!" he exclaimed, the first time he saw that film) and the Ku Klux Klan bombed the Atlanta Jewish Temple both in that film and in real life while he was in ninth grade ("why did they bomb my friends' church?" he asked then).

Cobb's politics were shaped by the two major events of his generation's life, the Civil Rights movement and the American involvement in the Vietnam War. His parents taught him that racial segregation was morally wrong and as he grew up in the Atlanta of the 1950's, that meant that both local and state governments were part of the problem. To accomplish legal desegregation, he had to look to the Federal Courts and to Washington. That made government in Washington part of the answer, not part of the problem.

Cobb became an original "Cameron Crazie" about Duke basketball in college (as a confirmed Blue Devil snob he asserts that the Final Four should be called "The Duke Invitational"). He also was pinned to two different girls at the same time (This is not recommended behavior: it is very tiring and one has to remember far too much) and as a result Cobb flunked out of Duke as a senior (most students who party too much have the good sense to be irresponsible as freshmen or sophomores).

Flunking out resulted in good news and bad news: the good news is that Cobb has the same anguished life experiences as many OCU students who undergo academic problems and can be a good counselor; the bad news is that he lost his student draft deferment and was inducted into the Army and trained as an infantry mortarman in 1966 with orders to Vietnam. The life expectancy of a mortarman in Vietnam was three months.

Despite not being able to put a battery in a portable radio, Cobb was sent to Signal Corps Officer Candidate School. 133 candidates began the course; 33 graduated. The first third of Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" could be viewed as a documentary on Signal Corps OCS). Cobb graduated with orders to Vietnam. The life expectancy of a Signal lieutenant in Vietnam was six months.

At Radio Officer School Cobb got a call from his OCS "little brother," now at the Pentagon, who offered to change his orders from Vietnam to NATO in Izmir, Turkey ("Are they shooting people in Turkey?" Cobb asked. "No, then I'll take it"). He spent two years as NATO Crypto Security Officer for Southeast Europe defending your grandparents from atheistic Communism from 7 AM to 1 PM every day and then stationing himself on the Aegean beach from 2 PM - 8 PM to ward off Communist whales.

Following sundry Middle Eastern adventures and irresponsibilities the now Captain Cobb extended in the Army for a year to plan marriage with the Turkish girl from the rich side of town. The Army said, "Yes, Captain Cobb, we are delighted for you to stay in the Army another year; no, Captain, you can't stay in Turkey. You're going to Vietnam"). The life expectancy of a Signal Corps Captain in Vietnam was one year. Cobb made it.

He served with the Strategic Communications unit that handled satellite messages back to Washington. The absurdity of war, its boredom, terror, banality, and slivers of idealism were all parts of the "field experience" for this young historian trained in the history of warfare.

Cobb has been at OCU in administration or on the faculty since 1981 and was selected by his peers as OCU's "Outstanding Teacher," the second year that award was given (Dr. Musselman won it in its first year, so the History Department, being recognized with the first two awards, was clearly seen as an outstanding teaching department).

Whether singing at Carnegie Hall or Kennedy Center under Robert Shaw, playing the viola in string quartets, forging Monets or Rothkos as an amateur painter, winning medals as an officer in "his generation's war," or working in the civil rights movement in Atlanta, Cobb tries to use his varied experience to enrich his classroom.

Cobb has two children, Cary (b. 1982) and Allison (b. 1986). He sings in the choir at Mayflower Congregational Church and occasionally plays viola/piano duets there with his children. He has no intention of retiring, because what he does for relaxation and fun (besides glorying in Duke basketball and a frantic racquetball game) is learn more history, think about it, and communicate it to new generations of students.