Rick Elliott

Rick Elliott has worked at the Center for the Recovery and Identification of the Missing at UIC since August 2020. In his current position, he specializes in the history of World War II in the Philippines and efforts to recover the remains of service members missing in action following combat. For CRIM, his primary role is writing historical narratives of American losses in the Philippines during World War II and the operations of the American Graves Registration Service. In Spring 2022, he led a fieldwork investigation in the Philippines to attempt to locate potential sites of remains for recovery. Elliott is currently a PhD Candidate in the Department of History at UIC. His academic research focuses on the history of capitalism and the extraction of natural resources in the American West in the nineteenth century. His dissertation examines the mining industry, the production of silver and gold into money, and the financial system in the Gilded Age West. As a historian for CRIM, Elliott uses the tools of historical research to support the center’s archaeological fieldwork in its ongoing efforts to recover the remains of service members missing in action.

M.A. History, University of Buffalo, 2013
B.A. History, Loyola University Chicago, 2011
B.B.A. Economics, Loyola University Chicago, 2011