Each Spring since the mid-1980s, SEMO’s Historic Preservation Association (HPA) has hosted an annual picnic and or banquet. This year, the HPA and the SEMO HP Alumni Chapter of the Alumni Foundation (chartered in 2016 as SEMO’s first…and still ONLY…degree-based alumni chapter) welcomed over 100 attendees to the HPA’s Annual Spring Banquet on Saturday evening, April 13. HP students and alumni enjoyed keynote speaker was Don Wildman, documentary host of TV’s Travel Channel’s Mysteries at the Museum and his podcast, American History Hit. It was a full weekend of networking and camaraderie that included a live, public concert on Friday night by Dennis Stroughmatt (1993 SEMO HP graduate; http://www.creolefiddle.com/) and his L’Espirit Creole ensemble that nearly filled the Wehking Alumni Center. Stroughmatt was surprised, too, as this year’s recipient of the HPA’s “Arthur H. Mattingly Lifetime Achievement Award in Historic Preservation.” On Saturday afternoon, conferees were afforded a behind-the-scenes tour of the Kellerman Foundation’s new building, Kellerman-Lorimier Hall, graciously hosted by Drs. Bert and Mary Ann Kellerman.
The HP Program celebrated its 40th ruby anniversary in 2021. A published history, “Foresight is 2021: Southeast Missouri State University’s Historic Preservation Retrospective,” is available at Amazon.com. For the latest news, HP students and alumni each have respective Facebook pages, accessible through the alumni chapter’s website: https://www.semohpalumni.org/.
This year’s HP Program graduates join an alumni of nearly 400 who may be found in communities across the country, in professional or paraprofessional pursuits. As you travel near and far and enjoy historic sites, museums, historical societies, and the like, remember there are museum curators, archivists, architectural historians, and interpreters in history in your community. And, there just might be a professional SEMO HP graduate working hard there to advocate for grassroots preservation.
The HP Program celebrated its 40th ruby anniversary in 2021. A published history, “Foresight is 2021: Southeast Missouri State University’s Historic Preservation Retrospective,” is available at Amazon.com. For the latest news, HP students and alumni each have respective Facebook pages, accessible through the alumni chapter’s website: https://www.semohpalumni.org/.
This year’s HP Program graduates join an alumni of nearly 400 who may be found in communities across the country, in professional or paraprofessional pursuits. As you travel near and far and enjoy historic sites, museums, historical societies, and the like, remember there are museum curators, archivists, architectural historians, and interpreters in history in your community. And, there just might be a professional SEMO HP graduate working hard there to advocate for grassroots preservation.
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