John Gurda (born 9 June 1947 in

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee is ...

Wisconsin Wisconsin () is a state in the upper Midwestern United States. Wisconsin is the 25th-largest state by total area and the 20th-most populous. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake M ...

) is an American

writer A writer is a person who uses written words in different writing styles and techniques to communicate ideas. Writers produce different forms of literary art and creative writing such as novels, short stories, books, poetry, travelogues, p ...

and

historian A historian is a person who studies and writes about the past and is regarded as an authority on it. Historians are concerned with the continuous, methodical narrative and research of past events as relating to the human race; as well as the stu ...

. Gurda's book, '' The Making of Milwaukee'', was turned into an Emmy Award-winning documentary series by

Milwaukee PBS Milwaukee PBS is the collective brand for two Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) member television stations licensed to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States: WMVS (channel 10) and WMVT (channel 36). Both stations are owned and operated by the Milw ...

. He is an eight-time winner of the

Wisconsin Historical Society The Wisconsin Historical Society (officially the State Historical Society of Wisconsin) is simultaneously a state agency and a private membership organization whose purpose is to maintain, promote and spread knowledge relating to the history of N ...

’s Award of Merit. He is also a local history columnist for

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The ''Milwaukee Journal Sentinel'' is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where it is the primary newspaper. It is also the largest newspaper in the state of Wisconsin, where it is widely distributed. It is currently o ...

Education

John Gurda graduated

Marquette University High School Marquette University High School (MUHS) is a private, all-male, Jesuit, Roman Catholic school located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is accredited by the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement (NCA CASI), an acc ...

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...

. He holds a B.A. in

English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...

from

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts. Founded in 1863, the university has more than 9,300 full-time undergraduates and nearly 5,000 graduate students. Although Boston College is classifie ...

and M.A. in

Cultural Geography Cultural geography is a subfield within human geography. Though the first traces of the study of different nations and cultures on Earth can be dated back to ancient geographers such as Ptolemy or Strabo, cultural geography as academic study first ...

from

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee (UW–Milwaukee, UWM, or Milwaukee) is a public urban research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It is the largest university in the Milwaukee metropolitan area and a member of the University of Wiscons ...

. Gurda has been described as a non-academic historian and is widely regarded as one of the most prolific historians of Milwaukee.

Professional Work

John Gurda is the author of twenty-two books, including histories of Milwaukee-area neighborhoods, industries, and places of worship. Gurda received his first corporate commission in 1981 from

Northwestern Mutual Northwestern Mutual is an American financial services mutual organization based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The financial security company provides consultation on wealth and asset income protection, education planning, retirement planning, investme ...

. He grew his professional profile through works for a variety of nonprofit and community organizations in Milwaukee. The City of Milwaukee put out a popular series of neighborhood posters for which Gurda wrote descriptions and histories. Since 1994, Gurda has written a local history column in the Sunday edition of the

. Gurda’s most comprehensive and best-known work is The Making of Milwaukee which has been released in four editions. The Making of Milwaukee was the first full-length history of the region published since 1948. Gurda published a companion piece to the The Making of Milwaukee called Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods. Gurda's text, The Making of Milwaukee was the basis for a documentary series that premiered on Milwaukee Public Television in 2006 and again in 2016. John Gurda also works as a lecturer, tour guide, and local history columnist for the

. In December 2022, Gurda announced that he would be stepping away from his role as a columnist for the newspaper.

Personal life

John Gurda was born and raised on the South Side of Milwaukee. He was one of four children, his sister Susie died in a car crash in 1968. At the age of 8, he and his family moved to the

suburb of

Hales Corners Hales Corners is a village in Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, United States. The population was 7,692 at the 2010 census. History The land in the area that would eventually encompass the Village was first claimed as French, then British, and even ...

. Gurda returned to Milwaukee in 1969 after completing his B.A. at

whereupon he worked as a housepainter. Since 1991, John Gurda and his wife have lived in the Fernwood subdistrict of the Bay View neighborhood of

. He has three children and four grandchildren. https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2013/12/02/house-confidential-john-gurdas-home-of-history/

Publications

*"Milwaukee: A City Built on Water", 2018 *"Milwaukee: City of Neighborhoods", 2015 *"One people, many paths: A history of Jewish Milwaukee", Jewish Museum Milwaukee, 2009 *"The policyowners' company: A history of Northwestern Mutual, 1857-2007", 2007 *"Cream City Chronicles: Stories of Milwaukee's Past", Wisconsin Historical Society Press; 1 edition (October 11, 2006) *"A Community Portrait: An Excerpt from Illuminating the Particular: Photographs of Milwaukee's Polish South Side" (co-authored with Christel T. Maass and Roman B. J. Kwasniewski), The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 87, No. 3 (Spring, 2004) *"The Making of Milwaukee", Milwaukee County Historical Society, (December 1, 1999) *"Path of a pioneer: A centennial history of the Wisconsin Electric Power Company", 1996 *"Profits and Patriotism: Milwaukee Industry in World War II", The Wisconsin Magazine of History, Vol. 78, No. 1 (Autumn, 1994) *"Discover Milwaukee catalog: Overflowing with information about history, homes, character, resources of Milwaukee and its neighborhoods", 1986 *"New World odyssey: Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church and Frank Lloyd Wright", 1986 *"The quiet company: A modern history of Northwestern Mutual Life", 1983 *"The West End, Merrill Park, Pigsville, Concordia: Milwaukee", 1980 *"A guide to ethnic resources in the Milwaukee area", 1977 *"Bay View, Wis: Milwaukee", 1979

References

External links

Official websiteJohn Gurda Bio at the Making of Making of Milwaukee
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gurda, John 1947 births Living people Writers from Milwaukee 21st-century American historians American male non-fiction writers University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee alumni Boston College alumni Historians from Wisconsin 21st-century American male writers