Texas State Historian
Archivist, Texas Tech University Southwest Collections
On September 18, 2018, Governor Greg Abbott named Monte L. Monroe the Texas State Historian. As such, Monroe is responsible for increasing public knowledge about the rich and diverse history of the state, encouraging the teaching of Texas history in public schools, consulting with state leaders to promote Texas history, and making presentations on Texas history topics. Based on his success during his first term as Texas State Historian, Monroe was reappointed by Governor Abbott on September 28, 2020, to a second term as State Historian.
Dr. Monroe is Archivist of the Southwest Collection and on faculty at Texas Tech University. Recently, the prestigious Philosophical Society of Texas elected him to membership. He was a founding board member of the Humanities Center at Texas Tech, serving over five years. Formerly editor of the West Texas Historical Review, he has taught and published widely on Texas history. He is chair of the Texas State Historical Association Archives Committee and serves on the Executive Advisory Committee of the Handbook of Texas Women Online. He is a former board member of the Texas Historical Records Advisory Board. He also served on the boards of the Lubbock Centennial Committee, the West and East Texas Historical Associations, and the Texas Map Society, and is a Fellow of the West Texas Historical Association. He is president of the Rotary Club of Lubbock Foundation, former president of the Downtown Rotary Club of Lubbock, and immediate past president of The Meriwether Society, Inc., a large national family history organization. In addition, he served on the Lubbock Tornado Memorial Committee. He was formerly Secretary General of the Pan American Taekwondo Union, encompassing 33 member nations, an International Master Instructor, 6th Degree Black Belt, and International Referee in Taekwondo. He was the first American, one of 24 in the world, to officiate that sport at its debut at the 1988 Seoul Games. He served again at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games and remains the only American to have officiated at two Olympic events.