Story by Vicki Tobias, UW-Madison Archives
This fall, the UW-Madison Archives collaborated with College of Letters & Science departments and programs to help honor distinguished and beloved faculty.
The faculty members included Howard Zimmerman and Joe Elder at two very special events commemorating their careers at UW–“Zimmerman Celebration” and “50 Years of Joe Elder at UW-Madison.”
In preparation for both events, Archives staff provided L&S staff Cam Carey and Michael Kruse with archival materials, historic photos and oral histories that documented Zimmerman and Elder, and their respective departments and campus activities over the past half century.
At both events, Archives staff coordinated collecting short stories from symposium and conference attendees. Participants were invited to share a short 3-5 minute story with Archives staff. These memories that are now part of the Archives’ permanent collections and, as such, part of campus history!
On the evening of Saturday, September 17, alumni, colleagues, and former students gathered at the Wisconsin Institutes for Discovery to celebrate Chemistry professor Howard Zimmerman’s career and contributions to Chemistry education at UW-Madison. Archives staff were on hand during the pre-banquet social hour to gather “favorite memories” of Howard and the “Z Group” from celebrants.
On October 22, the Center for South Asia and Department of Sociology celebrated “50 Years of Joe Elder at UW-Madison” in conjunction with the 40th Annual Conference on South Asia. During the conference banquet, Archives staff collected several anecdotes (in English and Hindi) about Joe Elder’s various contributions to his field of study and campus, in general. One participant even commemorated Joe in song!
For more information about “Zimmerman Celebration,” visit the Department of Chemistry’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/UWMadisonChem.
To learn more about “50 Years of Joe Elder at UW-Madison,” visit http://www.southasia.wisc.edu/elder/.
Is your department celebrating an anniversary? Hosting a retirement event for an honored faculty or staff member? Planning a reunion?
The University Archives can help by assisting with research in the Archives collections, providing historic photos and other archives materials to promote your event and coordinating short oral history interviews and/or scanning historic photos contributed by your guests.
For more information, contact the University of Wisconsin-Madison Archives at uwarchiv@library.wisc.edu or visit www.archives.library.wisc.edu.