Richard Nixon is the only American president in history to resign from office. Thanks to UW-Madison historian and professor Stanley Kutler, Americans heard thousands of hours of secretly recorded phone calls related to the Watergate scandal that drove Nixon out of office.
Kutler, UW-Madison professor emeritus of history, died Tuesday at the age of 80. He successfully fought in court to publish the Nixon tapes, the last of which were posted online in August 2013. Making the tapes public was no small accomplishment.
"If Richard Nixon were alive today, none of the tapes would be out, I'd still have a court case against him, and he would be fighting it tooth and nail," Kutler said in a 2011 interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Kutler wrote multiple books on the Watergate scandal, including “Abuse of Power: The New Nixon Tapes” in 1997 and “The Wars of Watergate: The Last Crisis of Richard Nixon” in 1990. He also worked with Harry Shearer on the play “I, Nixon,” and the British television series “Nixon’s the One.”
He earned his bachelor’s degree at Bowling Green State University in 1956 and his Ph.D. from Ohio State in 1960. He taught at Penn State and San Diego State University before coming to Madison in 1964, according to HighBeam Research.
Few professors achieve tenure status and fewer still achieve emeritus status, according to the National Education Association. Professor Kutler reached multiple distinguished positions and contributed to the history he committed his life to teaching.
Kutler is survived by his wife of 59 years, Sandra, three of his children and seven grandchildren. His oldest son Jeff preceded him in death. A service at Temple Beth El in Madison is set for 1:30 p.m. Sunday.
