H. Byron Earhart (born January 7, 1935) is an American historian, Ph.D, and author who specializes in Japanese religions.
[1] He was born on January 7, 1935, in Aledo, Illinois; son of Kenneth Harry and Mary (née Haack) Earhart.
He enrolled at the University of Chicago in a graduate program, got a Fulbright grant and went to Japan for three years of doctoral research.
[3] He studied under Mircea Eliade and Joseph M. Kitagawa at the University of Chicago, where he received a doctorate in History of Religions.
[4] He is a professor emeritus in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University[5] from which he received in 1981 a Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award.