For almost 60 years, he served as a professor of history and political science at Syracuse University.
Ketcham's academic focus was on political theory and the American founding with an emphasis on James Madison.
[1][2] Born on October 28, 1927, in Berea, Ohio, Ketcham was raised in New Hartford, New York.
After obtaining his PhD, Ketcham taught briefly at the University of Chicago and at Yale.
[3] Though he retired in 1997, Ketcham continued to write and to teach an annual graduate symposium on the foundations of American thought.