Ronald Rietveld has been a professor of history at the California State University, Fullerton since 1969.  He has been a student of Lincoln since the age of 14, when he discovered the last photograph of Lincoln in 1952 in the Nicolay papers of the Illinois State Historical Library.  From 1981 to 1984, he served as an academic advisor to the White House speech-writing staff under President Ronald Reagan.  He continues to lectture and write extensively on Lincoln and the American Civil War and is currently serving as a member of the Historical Advisory and Content Team for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, IL.  He is also serving as an advisor to the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, which established the 200th Celebration of Lincoln's Birthday in 2009