David C. Montgomery was professor of history at Brigham Young University, founded and coordinated the Near Eastern Studies Program from 1978 to 1984, and taught survey courses on Near Eastern history covering the ancient, medieval, and modern periods. His main research and writing was centered on Soviet Central Asia, in particular on the twentieth-century cultural history of the Uzbeks, a Turkic-speaking people. Professor Montgomery lived in Turkey in 1966–67 on a Fulbright grant and has a year’s experience in Soviet Uzbekistan on three separate grants (1969, 1977–1978, 1982) from the International Research and Exchange Board. He authored a book and several articles and conference papers about the peoples of Central Asia.