After two years as a newspaper reporter in Sacramento, California, and five years as a line officer during World War II in the U.S. Navy, Edwin D. Duryea turned his career in the direction of higher education, receiving his doctorate at Stanford University. In the years that followed, he held administrative and faculty positions at the University of Toledo, Oregon State University, Syracuse University, and finally, at the University at Buffalo/SUNY. As Professor in the Department of Higher Education at Buffalo, he attained a wide reputation in the area of his specialization, especially in the history of college and university governing boards.