Information for Donors

The Winter 2005 recipient was Nina Heald Webber, who earned this honor by her gracious, thoughtful and generous contributions to the archival documentation of life and cultural resources in Southwestern Colorado, including acquisition, compilation and donation of a fabulous large collection of postcards, photographs, ephemera and printed materials, funding the cataloging and digitization efforts of the Center of Southwest Studies at Fort Lewis College, and foundational support for the publication of the recently published book, San Juan Sampler: Selections from the Nina Heald Webber Postcard Collection.

The Fall of 2005 award went to Jan Lips (pictured at left with Nina Webber in the center and Archivist Todd Ellison on the right), who brought the expertise of  a career of professionalism, superb people skills, and attention to detail to the task of digitizing and producing textual data records for thousands postcards that Nina Heald Webber donated to the Center.

Diana Novara, recipient of the Summer 2006 award, has been a part-time member of the Southwest Studies Center staff since 2002 -- the first-ever Assistant Fort Lewis College Archivist.  During those four years, Diana eliminated a huge backlog of unprocessed College records and has kept our heads way above water with the regular ongoing influx (sometimes a flood!) of incoming records from offices all around campus.  She has processed hundreds of linear shelf feet of permanently valuable records for the Fort Lewis College Archives, has handled the day-to-day aspects of the College records management program, and has provided archival reference assistance.  We will miss Diana as she moves to the Front Range!  (The photo on the right was taken during the recognition reception held for Diana at the Center in August; left to right: Diana Novara, Rose Clay of the Office of Academic Affairs, Angela Rochat of  Grants Management, and Ellison; seated behind him is Jeanne Brako, Interim Director of the Center.)

Paula Wiseman and Bud Davis are honored with the Fall/Winter 2006/07 award.  Bud and Paula have been volunteering at the Center of Southwest Studies faithfully each Thursday for six years -- including several major archival arrangement and description projects at the Delaney Library, and museum artifact projects prior to that.  In the fall of 2006 they finished a huge project of archivally arranging, housing and numbering thousands of Native American photos in the Theodore Hetzel collection.  Standing at the left of the photo is Helen Bair, a daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Hetzel, who was acknowledged and thanked for her family's role in the Center's documentation of Native American history and culture.

Esther Greenfield, archival volunteer at the Center of Southwest Studies, is the honoree for the Summer/Fall 2007 award.  Esther has a knack for connecting the historical record with personalities.  Our first contact with Esther was when she showed up at the Delaney Library with her drawings of arborglyphs (aspen tree carvings) in the Durango area – which she had documented through her volunteer work for the San Juan Mountains Association.  She cataloged and scanned these images for access on the Center’s web site.  Her current project is organizing, classifying and filing many thousands of Western Colorado Power Company  photographs from the early 20th century.  When Esther finishes a day’s volunteer work at the Archives she enjoys looking at the records stored here and thinking about the human beings who made those records.  Her research on arborglyphs and on Frank Fitchue, early black pioneer in Durango, has been published by the Durango Herald.  The Center has honored Esther with this award to Esther to thank her for sharing with us her love of reviving our awareness of hidden individuals of local history and telling their stories for the researchers of today and the future.