Daniel L. Rust

Photo of Daniel Rust

Daniel L. Rust
Assistant Director for Undergraduate Program Development

240 JCPN
One University Blvd
University of Missouri-St. Louis
St. Louis, MO 63121-4400
314-516-7254
rustd@umsl.edu

Degrees Held:
Ph.D., University of Idaho
M.A., University of Idaho
B.A., Northwest Nazarene University

Teaching:

Research:

While his interests span all modes of transportation, Dr. Rust specializes in the history of commercial air travel in the United States. In 2009, the University of Oklahoma Press published his book, Flying Across America: The Airline Passenger Experience. Over one hundred photographs, many from the St. Louis Mercantile Library's Trans World Airlines collection, accompany this examination of air travel from the passengers' point of view through the prism of first-hand travel accounts found in popular periodicals during the formative era of coast-to-coast passenger service in the United States. The book has received many favorable reviews from publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and Air & Space Smithsonian.

Dr. Rust recently completed another book, AEP River Operations: Legacy of Excellence. AEP River Operations is a subsidiary of AEP (American Electric Power), headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. AEP entered the barge industry in 1973 when it bought its long-time provider of coal transportation services, O.F. Shearer & Sons. Renamed the AEP River Transportation Division, it supplied coal for the numerous AEP-owned, coal-fired electric generating stations on the Ohio and Kanawha Rivers. Twenty-eight years later AEP acquired a commercial barge line based in St. Louis named MEMCO. Called AEP River Operations, the combined company became one of the nation’s largest inland barge lines.

Dr. Rust’s past research includes an investigation of the costs and benefits of video event data recorders (EDR) in private fleet vehicles, and a U.S. Department of Transportation-funded inventory and survey of transportation, distribution, and logistics (TDL) providers within Missouri.

Dr. Rust’s current research interests include the history of Lambert-St. Louis International Airport, the safety regulation of inland waterways operators, and the transportation revolution of the 1950s.

Center for Transportation Studies