Burkett & Hench to retire; Council votes honors
They came to AAS in August 1973, about a week apart. John Hench had used
the collections in his Ph.D. studies at Clark University and had also
worked part-time at the library. While still at work on his dissertation,
he returned to his native Minnesota to teach but was recruited back to
Worcester to become AAS's editor of publications. Nancy Burkett came to
AAS as assistant curator of manuscripts directly from U.C.L.A. library
school at the same time that her husband, Randall, accepted a position in
Worcester at the College of the Holy Cross. Now on August 31, 2006,
Nancy and John
will be retiring after thirty-three years of distinguished service to the
Society.
When they arrived in 1973, AAS's entire budget was less than $260,000 and
its endowment less than $4 million. The staff consisted of thirty
individuals and there were two hundred fifty-five elected members. Now,
Nancy oversees an acquisitions budget and John a fellowship program budget
that are each greater than the entire budget of the Society in 1973. The
staff has doubled to about sixty, and the membership is just over eight
hundred. The permanent endowment is about $50 million, and the annual
budget about $4 million. Both Nancy and John have witnessed and, in many
ways, shaped the remarkable growth of AAS as a library and a research
center.
At its spring meeting in April 2006, the AAS Council voted to honor these
two dedicated staff members in ways that reflect their priceless
contributions to the Society. A Nancy Burkett Collection, reflecting the
full scope of materials collected by AAS, will be created with donations
of materials from dealers, collectors, members, and friends. For the last
fourteen years, Nancy served as head of acquisitions as well as the Marcus
A. McCorison Librarian. During this time she worked with hundreds of
people, including many readers of ALMANAC, to build upon existing
strengths in the collections and help double the acquisitions endowment.
If you were among the many who shared experience or expertise with
Nancy -- or learned from her! -- you may already know exactly the right
book,
print, pamphlet, manuscript, or piece of paper ephemera to donate to the
library in her honor (if you have a question, please contact Elizabeth
Pope at AAS). Gifts of cash will be placed in a special pool for her
successor to use in purchasing items to be designated as part of the Nancy
Burkett Collection. We will update gifts to this special collection on the
AAS website, and they will be tagged in the online catalog so that the
entire Nancy Burkett Collection can be compiled electronically with ease.
John Hench's service to the Society's academic programs will be recognized
by naming the John B. Hench Post-dissertation Fellowship in his honor.
John arrived in the second year of the newly created fellowship program
when five fellows were invited to spend one or two months in residence. He
has played a large role in overseeing the growth of the program, which now
annually invites thirty to thirty-five fellows for lengths of stay varying
from one month to an entire year and has expanded to include fellowships
for creative and performing artists and writers. John's devotion goes
beyond administration and oversight. He has made a point of getting to
know fellows both professionally and personally. John developed the idea
of the post-dissertation fellowship here and wrote the proposal to the
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation that launched it with expendable grants and
then led to the award of a challenge grant to endow both the John B. Hench
Post-dissertation Fellowship and the Senior Scholar in Residence
permanently. We will need to raise $1,000,000 to be matched dollar for
dollar by the Mellon Foundation in order to endow these two fellowships.
Gifts for this effort from John's friends will be greatly appreciated.
Anyone who has come in contact with Nancy and John knows how much they
will be missed. They have made their own legacies through their dedication
and hard work, but we hope that many of their friends will contribute
toward the permanent honors that are being created to recognize their
service.
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To contribute a book, print, pamphlet, manuscript, or piece of paper
ephemera to the Nancy Burkett Collection, please contact Elizabeth Pope,
Acquisitions Research Assistant, at
epope[at]mwa.org.
To contribute to the John B. Hench Post-dissertation Fellowship program,
please contact John Keenum, Vice-President for Development, at
jkeenum[at]mwa.org.
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