< Mark A. Snell, Director

Mark came to the Center in November 1993 soon after his retirement from the United States Army. He has a B.A. from York College of Pennsylvania, an M.A. in American history from Rutgers, and the Ph.D. from the University of Missouri-Kansas City. Mark is a former assistant professor at the United States Military Academy, West Point, NY. As an associate professor of history at Shepherd University, he teaches several courses on different aspects of the Civil War, the two-semester US history survey, and courses on World War I and World War II.  Mark also chairs the “Civil War and 19th Century America” concentration and the “Public History” concentration within the history major.  He has written or edited several books on the Civil War, including From First to Last, The Life of Major General William B. Franklin (Fordham Univ. Press, 2002), but his most recent publication is about the US involvement in World War I and is titled Unknown Soldiers: The American Expeditionary Forces in Memory and Remembrance (Kent State University Press, 2008).  Mark also is an adjunct professor in the Masters of Military History degree program at Norwich University. In February 2009 he was given the "Honorary West Virginian Award" by Governor Joe Manchin, the highest award the governor can bestow on someone who is not a West Virginia citizen.

During the fall semester of 2008, Mark served as Visiting Senior Lecturer of War Studies at the Royal Military Academy (Sandhurst) in the United Kingdom, where he taught courses on the theory of war, the history of insurgency/counterinsurgency warfare, military leadership from a historical perspective, and expeditionary operations. In addition, he helped to lead "Operation Normandy Scholar," when British cadets travel to the battlefields of Normandy for a combined staff ride and tactical exercise.

Mark’s great-great grandfathers served in the 87th Pennsylvania Infantry during the Civil War, his grandfather was in the US Army Air Service in World War I, and his father fought in World War II as a member of the US Army’s 215th Field Artillery Battalion in the European Theater of Operations.

E-mail: msnell@shepherd.edu

Denise E. Messinger, Assistant to the Director >

Denise joined the staff of the George Tyler Moore Center in the fall of 2000. Before transferring to the Center, she worked in the Department of Administration and Finance at Shepherd University. Denise graduated from the University of North Carolina at Asheville in 1998, where she earned a bachelor's degree in history. A native of Adams County, Pennsylvania, she now resides in Waynesboro, Pennsylvania. E-mail: dmessing@shepherd.edu

< Thomas E. White, Research Associate/Historical Records Specialist

Tom earned degrees from Montana State University (BS'59 -General Studies, MS'63 - American History). He retired from the National Park Service in 1997, after 34+ years service. Some of his NPS assignments included Park Historian, Manassas NBP, VA (64-66); Supervisory Historian, Fort Laramie NHS, WY (68-72); and Interpretive Planner at Harpers Ferry Center, WV (87-97). Tom's side interest is working on his family genealogy and researching the Civil War records of three great-grandfathers who were Union army veterans. He joined the staff of the George Tyler Moore Center in October 1998.

Albert J. Pejack, Jr., Database Administrator/Programmer>

A graduate of Westminster College, PA with a B.S. in economics and Clemson University, SC, with an M.S. in management, Al was a professor of computer studies at several colleges and universities before coming to Shepherd University in 1988. Since February 1995, "Uncle Al" has been working at the George Tyler Moore Center developing and managing the Center's database, as well as working on other software projects. He is a veteran of the US Air Force.

< Heidi E. Carbaugh, Student Staff Member

Heidi, a student staff member of the George Tyler Moore Center, is a sophomore at Shepherd University who graduated in 2008 from Loudoun Valley High School in Northern Virginia.  She is majoring in history with a concentration in the Civil War and nineteenth-century America and is taking historic preservation as a minor.  She is from Hamilton in Loudoun County, Virginia, and has an older sister and a younger brother as well as two cats.  In the summer of 2007, Heidi attended a course at the College of William & Mary focused on American history from Jamestown to the American Revolution.  She enjoys reading works by Henry David Thoreau and participating in Civil War vignette programs, portraying a variety of people from Society of Friends member (Quaker) Carrie Taylor to Confederate spy Belle Boyd.