Michael J. Hightower, PhD, is an independent historian and biographer. As a scholar and descendant of pioneer bankers, his fields of interest include the American frontier, banking, and law.
Michael holds degrees from Washington and Lee University, the University of Denver, Oklahoma State University, and the University of Virginia. He has been a teacher and coach at two college preparatory schools, founder and president of Council Oak Books in Tulsa, communications director for the Tulsa Metro Chamber, and a visiting lecturer in Sociology at UVA. Nowadays, when he’s not writing in his home office just down the road from Monticello, he’s likely to be riding his horse or prowling through archives in his home state of Oklahoma, where most of his books are based and his family enterprises are headquartered.
Michael lives with his wife, Judy, in Charlottesville and Oklahoma City.