A leading authority on 17th century colonial American history, Douglas Edward Leach graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brown University in 1942. After service as a deck officer in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he earned his M.A. (1947) and Ph.D. (1952) from Harvard University. Leach began his career as a history professor at Bates College, Lewiston, Maine, where he taught from 1950 until 1956. In 1956, he joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University where he remained until his retirement in 1986.