John Francis Bannon, S. J. (1905-1986)
John Francis Bannon co-founded the Western
History Association in 1961 and served as its
fourth president from 1965 to 1966. He was
born in St. Joseph, Missouri in 1905, the son
of William Joseph and Clara Shortle Bannon.
Affinity for the West was a family trait: Bannon’s
brother James manifested his through portrayal
of “Red Ryder” in movie and television roles
throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
A self-described “professor-priest,” Father Bannon earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy
from Saint Louis University in 1928 followed by
a master’s degree in philosophy and history in
1929. From 1937-1939, he studied anthropology
at the University of California, Berkeley with
Spanish borderlands scholar Herbert E. Bolton.
After completing his doctorate in 1939, Father
Bannon joined the history department at Saint
Louis University, where he would stay for 34 years until his retirement in 1973. During his career,
he also held visiting positions at University of Colorado Boulder, University of California, Santa
Barbara, University of New Mexico, Utah State University, and Marquette University.
In concert with his scholarly training, Father Bannon also trained in the seminary, and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1935. In the 1920s and 1930s, he studied theology in England, France,
and the United States, but ultimately Father Bannon chose academe over pastoral work. Through
his scholarship, he became a recognized authority on the early trans-Mississippi West and colonial
Latin America. Like his mentor Herbert Bolton, Father Bannon regarded the histories of North and
South America as necessarily intertwined, especially in terms of the colonial experience.
Father Bannon wrote 12 books and textbooks, including The Spanish Borderlands Frontier, 15131821; Latin America An Historical Survey; The Spanish Conquistadores: Men or Devils?; and
Herbert Eugene Bolton: The Historian and the Man, 1870-1953. A dynamic member of both of
his fields, he served on the editorial board of the Hispanic-American Historical Review and on
the executive council of the American Catholic Historical Association. In the 1950s, he delivered
more than 100 public television broadcasts on the history of the American West and colonial Latin
America, and his reach expanded to the skies when he wrote two in-flight booklets for American
Airlines, History Below the Jet Trails (Saint Louis to Los Angeles) and West to the River (New York
to Saint Louis).
Father John Francis Bannon died on June 5, 1986 in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 81. The history
department at Saint Louis University endowed a professorship in Father Bannon’s name, The John
Francis Bannon, S.J. Endowed Chair in History. The endowment memorializes his contributions:
“Father John Francis Bannon, Scholar, Teacher, Priest.”
Sources:
“John F. Bannon Manuscript Collection,” Saint Louis University Archives
http://libraries.slu.edu/files/docmss56bannon.pdf; “John Francis Bannon, S.J.” Saint Louis University
http://www.slu.edu/x46303.xml.
Authored By:
Laurie Arnold, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Indiana