Iris Higbie Wilson Engstrand (born January 9, 1935) is a retired American academic. She was professor of history at University of San Diego from 1968 until 2017; she joined the faculty of the San Diego College for Men before it and other colleges joined to form the university in 1972.[1]
She specialized in the history of California and Spanish exploration during the 1700s,[2] and as of 2017 had written about twenty books on those subjects.[1]
She serves on the board of directors of the Maritime Museum of San Diego.[3] She served as co-editor of the Journal of San Diego History, 2004-2014; president of the Western History Association, 2004-2005; and in 2007 was awarded the Order of Isabella the Catholic by the government of Spain for her contributions to the field of Spanish history.[2]
She was born in 1935 in Los Angeles and earned her B.A. (1956), M.A. (1957), and Ph.D. (1962) from the University of Southern California.[2] Her dissertation topic was "Scientific Aspects of Spanish Exploration in New Spain during the Late Eighteenth Century," and was supervised by Donald C. Cutter.[4] She began her teaching career in the Huntington Beach High School from 1957 to 1959, and then worked as a translator of Spanish manuscripts for the Los Angeles County Museum, 1959-60.[5] She became a lecturer at the University of Southern California in 1962, and an instructor at Long Beach City College in 1962.[5]