Edmund F. Wehrle had a television debut on PBS.

“It was a wonderful experience,” said Wehrle, a history professor.

Last summer, Wehrle had an opportunity to appear on an episode of “History Detectives” on PBS.

“History Detectives” is a program that researches and investigates historical events.

Viewers tune into the program and ask questions regarding historical events, landmarks, and/or important people throughout history.

Wehrle received a question about Camp David, a mountain retreat created by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Wehrle said he was well acquainted with Camp David.

“While getting my PhD at Maryland, I did research on Cactocin Park for the National Park Service,” Wehrle said. “I enjoyed the outdoors a great deal.”

Wehrle also enjoys teaching at Eastern. Wehrle said when he came to the university he was impressed by the faculty in the history department. They were looking for someone in his field and he was offered a job. Wehrle’s specialties are US diplomatic and labor history.

“It has been terrific and I enjoy everything I have done here,” he said of his time at Eastern.

Wehrle said he loves teaching history, however he did not start off his college career studying the subject. Wehrle received his Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature at the University of Toronto.

“I started to take history courses and that was something very exciting to me,” he said.

Wehrle then received his PhD in history at the University of Maryland.

“I decided to become a historian,” he said. “History was a little bit more grounded in the real world then maybe literature in some ways.”

Wehrle’s dissertation to obtain his PhD was focused on the non-communist trade union movement in Vietnam during the Vietnam War.

Wehrle said students wanting to work in the field of history should be prepared to work for a long time.

“Unfortunately to teach [history] on the university level you have to get a PhD and that can take 7 to 8 years,” he said.

As for history being made during the 2008 presidential election between Barack Obama, and Hillary Clinton, he leaves that debate to other people.

“We already have enough problems about the past so I just leave it to the political scientists to figure that out,” he said.

Jessica Leggin can be reached at 581-7942 or at jmleggin@eiu.edu.