David Bushnell (historian)
David Bushnell (May 14, 1923 – September 3, 2010) was an American academic and Latin American historian who has been called "The Father of the Colombianists." Bushnell, one of the first Americans to study Colombia, was considered one of the world's leading experts on the history of Colombia. He regarded it as one of the least studied countries in Latin America by academic scholars in the United States and Europe, and was considered the first American historian to study and introduce Colombian history as an academic field in the United States. Early life and career Bushnell was born on May 14, 1923, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree from Harvard University. After graduation, Bushnell worked for both the Latin American Division of the Office of Strategic Services and the United States State Department from 1944 to 1946. From 1956 to 1963, Bushnell worked as a United States Air Force historian based in Washington, D.C., and New Mexico. He co-authored Space Biology for the U.S. Air Force, which chronicled high-altitude experiments which experts designed to launch people into outer space during the early years of the space program. He also oversaw the creation of an official written