Henry Meyer, 88; Historian, Zeppelin Expert

Henry Cord Meyer, founding chairman of UC Irvine’s history department who became an expert in zeppelins after he retired, has died. He was 88.

Meyer died Sunday at his home in Claremont, where he had moved in March. He had been undergoing treatment for cancer. He served as a professor specializing in modern European history for 17 years and founded UC Irvine’s University Club.

Born in Chicago, the son of German immigrants, Meyer moved to Colorado at the age of 7 after the death of his father. He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Colorado and his master’s from the University of Iowa. After studying a year in Vienna, he returned to the United States and received his doctorate from Yale.

Before he could start his academic career, he was among a group of historians called to Washington for intelligence work shortly before Pearl Harbor. He was commissioned as an ensign in the Navy but spent World War II working for the Office of Strategic Services, the precursor of the CIA.

After the war, as colleges grew to take in the influx of servicemen under the GI Bill, Meyer took a job as a history professor at Pomona College. He stayed at Pomona until 1964, when UC Irvine lured him with an offer to build its history department.

“He loved Pomona, but the challenge of a new university was overpowering,” said his wife, Helen. “It was not to be denied.”

Meyer specialized in modern Central European history. After founding the University Club at UC Irvine, he raised money to keep it running.

After retiring in 1981, Meyer continued to go to his UC Irvine office each day, until he moved from Laguna Beach to Claremont. Then for the next 20 years, his research interest changed from European history to the politics, history and economics of the zeppelin. He wrote four books about the airship.

“He was probably the last person living who had interviewed all the major characters involved,” Helen Meyer said.

His most recent book, “Airships in International Affairs, 1890-1940,” will be released in a few weeks. A previous book, “Airshipmen, Businessmen, and Politics, 1890-1940,” was part of the Smithsonian History of Aviation series.

“It began as a hobby really, and then developed into a genuine research interest,” Helen said.

In addition to his wife, Meyer is survived by sons Henry Cord III of Laguna Beach and Christopher, the city manager of Fullerton; and daughter Dallas Celecia of Laguna Beach.

A private interment ceremony is planned.