Dr. Mark DePue

Dr. Mark DePue served as the Director of Oral History at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library from September of 2006 to the end of 2021, a position he inaugurated. To date, the program has collected over 1,100 interviews, with well over one thousand interviews posted onto the Oral History website at www.oralhistory.illinois.gov. Mark continues to conduct interviews following his retirement, and at last count has personally conducted 371 oral history interviews for the ALPLM, of which 155 are with military veterans from World War II to our current War on Terror.

Mark was born in Decorah, Iowa in 1954, and grew up in Waverly, Iowa. He graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1976 and spent the next twenty-five years in the military. While on active duty, he served as a Field Artillery officer at Fort Carson, Colorado and in South Korea. He joined the Illinois Army National Guard in 1981 while a graduate student at the University of lowa. Mark served as an Assistant Professor of Military Science at Western Illinois University from 1986-1989, then moved to Springfield, Illinois, working full-time for the Illinois Army National Guard in a variety of command and staff positions until his retirement in early 2001. He commanded the 2nd Battalion, 202nd Air Defense Artillery based in the Chicago area from 1992 to 1995.

Mark earned a Ph.D. in contemporary U.S. history and military history from the University of Iowa in 2004. He is the author of three books, including The Lineage and Honors of the Illinois Militia and National Guard, and Patrolling Baghdad: A Military Police Company and the War in Iraq, published in 2006.

His third book, Elusive Victory: The Equal Rights Amendment in Illinois, is due to be published by the SIU Press in the fall of 2026. Since 2008 Mark has given numerous presentations on military history and Illinois politics, many of which are available on the internet.