Dr. William A. Blair, a historian of the Civil War Era, serves as a docent and Vice President on the Board of Governors for the Centre County Historical Society. Dr. Blair is a professor emeritus of American history and emeritus director of the George and Ann Richards Civil War Era Center at Penn State. He is also the founding editor of The Journal of the Civil War Era, published by the University of North Carolina Press.

His five single-authored books include With Malice Toward Some, a study of treason during the war that was a finalist for the Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize in 2015. His most recent book–Arlington: An African American History–details the lives of enslaved and free African Americans who resided for nearly 100 years on what we know as a military cemetery. It will be out this fall with the University of North Carolina Press.