Professor of History, College Historian
Phone: ext. 2277
Email: freyr@centenaryuniversity.edu 

Academic Accomplishments

• D.H.L., Honorary Doctorate of Letters, Centenary University, 2010
• Ph.D., American Intellectual History, Drew University, 1989
• M.Phil., Nineteenth Century Studies, Drew University, 1987
• M.A. in Philosophy, Fordham University, 1983
• B.A. in Philosophy, William Paterson University, 1979

Biography

Dr. Raymond Frey is a Professor of History at Centenary University in Hackettstown, where he has taught since 1990.  He is the recipient of three major awards for teaching excellence—the Evening Division Teaching Award from Pace University, the Lindback Foundation Award for Distinguished Teaching from Centenary, and the Award for Teaching New Jersey History from the New Jersey Studies Academic Alliance.  In 2006, he was the Gates-Ferry Foundation Distinguished Lecturer at Centenary.

In 2000 and again in 2004, Dr. Frey prepared a White House briefing document on Bess Truman for First Lady Laura Bush.  He also contributed chapters on the Trumans in The Presidential Companion, a book of readings on the first ladies, as well as Life in the White House: A Social History of the First Family and the President’s House, and American First Ladies, a new encyclopedia on American first ladies.  He recently contributed to a new book on Truman’s civil rights record, to be published by Truman University Press.  He is also a member of the editorial board of White House Studies, a scholarly journal devoted to the study of the American presidency.

Professor Frey is also one of the leading scholars of New Jersey history.  He has written two textbooks on the state—New Jersey, A Journey of Discovery, and New Jersey, Our Home.  He has contributed to the New Jersey Encyclopedia, and regularly lectures on New Jersey history around the state.

He is an avid hiker and has completed New Jersey’s 72-mile section of the Appalachian Trail.  He is a certified trail maintainer and instructor for the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference.

Published Works

William James Durant, an Intellectual Biography. Edwin Mellen Press, 1991.

New Jersey, a Journey of Discovery. Gibbs Smith Publishers, 2004.

Centenary University, New Jersey, Arcadia Publishers, 2012.

“Bess Truman: The Reluctant First Lady,” chapter in The Presidential Companion: Readings on the First Ladies, published by University of South Carolina Press, 2003.

“Mr. Truman’s White House,” chapter in Life in the White House, published by SUNY Press, 2004.

Contributor, American First Ladies, Salem Press, 2001: article on Bess Truman.

Truman’s Speech to the NAACP, 29 June 1947,” in The Civil Rights Legacy of Harry S. Truman. Truman State University Press, 2007.

Research

New Jersey History, Truman Administration, Progressive Era in New Jersey