Claude Howard Dorgan (July 5, 1932 – July 5, 2012) was an American academic best known for his research and writing on the topic of religion in Appalachia.

Dorgan was a native of Ruston, Louisiana. After study at the University of Texas at El Paso, where he received a bachelor's degree, and the University of Texas at Austin, which awarded him a masters of fine arts degree, he spent nine years as a teacher in secondary schools in Idaho and Texas, followed by three years as a forensics coach at Lamar University in Texas. He then enrolled for further study at Louisiana State University, where he earned his Ph.D. in speech communication in 1971.^[1][2]

After obtaining his Ph.D., Dorgan joined the faculty of the Department of Communication of Appalachian State University, serving there from 1971 until his retirement in 2000.^[1] A fascination with the rhythmical style of Appalachia's old-time Baptist preachers led him into more than thirty years of rhetorical and ethnographic research on religion in Appalachia, with a particular focus on traditional Baptist sub-denominations indigenous to the region.^[3] He served as editor for the religion section of the Encyclopedia of Appalachia.^[4]

He received the 1993 Thomas Wolfe Literary Award for the book Airwaves of Zion: Radio Religion In Appalachia.^[1][5]

Books

• The Oratory of Southern Demagogues, with Calvin Logue. Louisiana State University Press, 1981.
• Giving Glory To God in Appalachia: Worship Practices of Six Baptist Subdenominations. University of Tennessee Press, 1987.
• A New Diversity in Contemporary Southern Rhetoric, with Calvin Logue. Louisiana State University Press, 1987.
• The Old Regular Baptists of Central Appalachia: Brothers and Sisters in Hope. University of Tennessee Press, 1989.
• Airwaves of Zion: Radio Religion In Appalachia. University of Tennessee Press, 1993.
• In the Hands of a Happy God: The No Hellers of Central Appalachia. University of Tennessee Press, 1997.