Great Living Archivists - Part 1

I realize that there are thousands of archivists out there who go about their business, doing their jobs, without any consideration or recognition from their peers. I thought it might be nice to highlight some of the archivists I know who are great archivists and great people. I stumbled upon this idea (or it found me?) when I was trying to send an email message from my gmail account to an old friend. I typed in his name, but instead of putting it in the email "to" field, it put it in the search window in Firefox. The results were many, but the first one I clicked on (I was curious what others said about him) I found this photo of him from a genealogy talk he gave.

His name is Dean DeBolt. Some of you old timers out there will recognize the name. He was pretty involved in SAA back in the 1980s and 1990s and at one time served as chair of the Reference, Outreach, and Access Section of SAA.

Dean has been an archivist forever, literally. I always wondered how come no one asked him about how the Library at Alexandria was organized, cause, geez!, he probably used to work there! All jesting aside, Dean worked for an archives in Illinois for ten years before coming to the University of West Florida and taking over their special collections department back in 1981. He's been an archivist there for 29 years, something the rest of us can only aspire to.

I took my introductory archives course from Dean in a one-on-one format. Throughout the semester I studied with him, I also worked 20 hours a week for him as his graduate assistant. I processed my first two collections with him; the first, a small manuscript collection from a Vietnam Veteran, and the second, a collection of 22 cubic feet of university academic affairs records. Wow, that was a long time ago!

Dean has been my mentor all these years, though our communication is willy-nilly. In fact, my last three bosses (yes, I've had that many. Yikes!) have said that it was because of Dean's recommendation as a reference that I got those jobs.

Dean DeBolt is a testimony to a person overcoming some disabilities to become what can only be termed a "star" in the Pensacola genealogy community. His talks are legendary. I even heard a story about his once having a formal gathering of genealogists in fancy suits and dresses rolling on the floor laughing. He has done it many times and will do it again.

Thank you, Dean, for providing an example to me and to others about what a good archivists should be and do.