A specialist in the history of early modern Europe, John Gullmartin was professor of history at the Ohio State University, where he taught from 1987 until his death. He earned his BS degree in aerospace engineering at the United States Air Force Academy and an MA (1969) and PhD (1971) in history at Princeton University. An officer in the United States Air Force, Gullmartin served on the faculty of the History Department at the Air Force Academy from 1970-74 and was later the editor of the Air University Review at the Air University in Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. After his retirement from the Air Force, he served on the faculties of the Naval War College and at Rice University where he also directed the space shuttle history project at the Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center in Houston.