Ivan C. Doig

Ivan C. Doig (BSJ61, MSJ62) is a member of the Medill Hall of Achievement.

Doig is an award-winning author, was born in White Sulphur Springs, Montana, and grew up along the Rocky Mountain Front, where much of his writing takes place.

He was the author of 16 books. He wrote four books during his eight-year battle with multiple myeloma. His final book, “Last Bus to Wisdom,” was published after his death.

His other novels include “Sweet Thunder,” (2014), “Bartender’s Tale,” (2013), “Work Song,” (2010), “The Eleventh Man” (2008), “The Whistling Season” (2006), “Prairie Nocturne” (2003), “Mountain Time” (1999) and “Bucking the Sun” (1996). Doig's first book, the highly acclaimed memoir, "This House of Sky," published in 1978, was a finalist for the National Book Award of Contemporary Thought. It received a Christopher Award, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, and the Governor's Writers Day Award. Another book, "Heart Earth," received the 1993 David W. and Beatrice C. Evans Biography Award for the best biography in the Rocky Mountain West. The Center for the American West awarded Doig the prestigious Wallace Stegner Award in 2007, and he was the recipient of the Western Literature Association’s lifetime Distinguished Achievement award.

Doig earned a Ph.D. in American history at the University of Washington, writing his dissertation about John J. McGilvra.

Doig died in 2015.