Goldwater's Ham Radio Exhibit

Arizona Historical Society posts: 

 🎉 Yesterday we celebrated the birthday of Barry Goldwater (1909-1998). A prominent political figure, he also began his second term in the U.S. Senate on this day in 1969, serving Arizona until 1987. Barry was also a dedicated ham radio operator with the call sign K7UGA, whose passion for the hobby extended beyond personal enjoyment. During the Vietnam War, Goldwater used his ham radio to help soldiers overseas stay connected to their families back home. Through his efforts, he facilitated thousands of messages, known as "phone patches", allowing servicemen to communicate with their loved ones in a time before widespread digital communication. This act of service highlighted the potential of amateur radio to bridge distances and provide comfort during challenging times. Goldwater's ham radio work remains a powerful example of how technology can be used to foster human connection and community. Starting January 6th, you can visit the Arizona Heritage Center to see his original ham radio setup in person! Stop by to explore this fascinating piece of history.

 Barry Goldwater was honored as an Arizona Historymaker in 1992. The Historical League noticed this ham radio on a tour of the Goldwater home, conducted by Susan Goldwater Levine. Now the ham radio can be enjoyed by visitors to the Arizona Heritage Center at Papago Park.

Dr. Christine Marin January guest speaker: topic Gràcia Liliana Fernàndez

Do you remember taking Spanish in high school? As guest speaker at the January meeting, Dr. Christine Marin explained how Spanish became a major course of study thanks to Gràcia Liliana Fernàndez.

Miss Fernàndez was a bilingual teacher of English and Spanish. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Liberal Arts from the University of Maine in 1898 and then earned the Arizona Territorial Certificate to teach in the Arizona territory. Parents in Apache County wanted their children to receive a good education so they could progress and become successful, but the white teachers didn't understand or speak Spanish. In turn, the children needed to learn English. Gràcia came to fill that gap. The demand for bilingual teachers grew throughout the territory, including in Maricopa County. In time, the president of the Tempe Normal School (now ASU), Arthur John Matthews, hired Gràcia to be the first Professor of Spanish and the first Hispanic librarian of the school. She legitimized Spanish as a major course of study. The students she taught became the new bilingual teachers throughout the Arizona Territory, helping Spanish-speaking children become successful in their schooling and in life.

Gracia was honored in 2020 as inductee in Arizona Women's Hall of Fame.

Dr. Marin, Professor Emeritus, Archivist-Historian at ASU, is the founder of the prestigious archival repository, Chicano/Chicana Research Collection and Archives at the Hayden Library in Tempe.

Dr. Christine Marin

She has won many awards for her work, and she is also the President of the Tempe History Society. She proudly hails from Globe, Arizona where she maintains close ties to the community and was inducted into the Globe High School Hall of Fame.

Historymaker Adam Diaz and Luhrs Tower

Arizona Historymaker Adam Diaz had much to do with the Luhrs Tower. He was thirteen when he left school to support his family after his father’s death. Later, he enrolled in night business school to learn communication skills. Upon meeting George Luhrs, Jr. in the 1920s, Adam was hired as an elevator operator in the Luhrs Building, eventually becoming a building manager for the Luhrs Properties. Adam attributes his many civic accomplishments to the support he received from Mr. Luhrs, who encouraged him to join community organizations and allowed him time off from his job to do so. More at https://www.historicalleague.org/historymakers/adam-diaz

Thanks to Arizona History/ Jimi Giannati for following text/photo. "Sitting on the corner of First Ave and Jefferson and looking like a wedding cake made for a princess with a tower that reaches a height of 185 ft.; the Luhrs Tower is an iconic art-deco skyscraper that was built in 1929 by George Luhrs Jr., a prominent local Phoenix native, It was Phoenix’s first 10-story high-rise when it opened to great fanfare on April 1, 1924 built at a cost of $553,000. Since then it has been added to the Phoenix Historic Property Register. If it looks familiar, it might be because you spotted it in Alfred Hitchcock’s “Psycho.”

December Guest Speaker for Holiday Celebration: Pat McMahon

 If you have been in the Valley awhile you know Pat McMahon and how influential he has been. We are delighted to welcome him as the speaker for our Dec. holiday celebration. Over the course of his career, he’s won multiple honors and is an AZ Historymaker. But most of us know him as Gerald, Aunt Maud, Captain Super, Hub Kapp, and a host of other characters from the Wallace & Ladmo Show. To this day, the show remains one of the longest running locally produced children’s shows in America.

Dec. 2, 2024 at AZ Heritage Center, 1300 N. College Ave, Tempe, AZ 85288.

10:00am Historical League business meeting (not open to public)

11:00am Pat McMahon

Noon Lunch- $40.00 http://www.historicalleague.org/event-inside.aspx...

If you, or others in your party, prefer not to stay for lunch, but want to attend Pat’s presentation, please RSVP to Jolynn Clarke, Jolynn@leaders-view.com with your name, email, and the number in your party. Limited seating.

Pat McMahon's background: Over the course of his career, he's won seven Emmys, is an inductee into several halls of fame, and is a 1993 Arizona Historymaker™. He is the winner of both an International Broadcasting Gold Medal and an Edward R. Murrow Award.

Pat is a longstanding fixture of the Phoenix broadcasting scene, serving as a program director, a disc jockey, and a talk-show host, among other positions. But most of us know him as Gerald, the over-privileged brat; Aunt Maud, the elderly storyteller of dark tales; Captain Super, the phony superhero; Hub Kapp, the rock and roll star; and a host of other characters from the Wallace and Ladmo Show. That show was one of the longest running locally produced children's shows in America. He's proud of that, and we are too.

Pat was born to life-long vaudeville performers Jack and Adelaide McMahon, who performed a variety-dance act that took the three McMahons worldwide. He was home schooled on the road but later attended a private high school and college in the Midwest. After a stint in the Army, Pat made his way to Arizona in May 1960, where he's lived ever since.

Oh, the stories he's able to tell, and we're looking forward to hearing them all. Pat will tell us about his life and how the Wallace and Ladmo shows impacted him and Arizona history.

November meeting

 Planning future events at the November meeting brought out a good crowd of Historical League members. Guest speaker Diane Burke Fessler presented her book and discussed women veterans in WWII.

Thanks to Josie Pete and Katie Tovar for the great photos.

Thanks to Sandy Loeffler for the adorable fall wagon table decorations.

Fabulous lunch presentation from Creations by Sergio at our November meeting. Turkey dinner sandwiches and Pecan pie . . . oh my!

November Guest Speaker Diane Burke Fessler "No Time for Fear"

 Honoring our veterans this month, Diane Burke Fessler, author of No Time for Fear: Voices of American Military Nurses of World War II, spoke at our November meeting. Her aunt was an Army nurse who wrote letters every week from her stations overseas and led Fessler to want to write about her. After attending a reunion of the 166th General Hospital in 1989 with "Auntie Raine" (Lorraine Krause Taylor), she interviewed more than 200 nurses whose stories had not been told. Covering all theaters of war, the nurses remembered their overseas assignments, including the first flight nurses, women at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, prisoners of the Japanese in the Philippines, and African-American nurses who served in a segregated U.S. Army.

Diane grew up in Chicago, graduated from Arizona State University with a degree in Journalism, and lives in Phoenix. She also contributed a chapter about women in Arizona during the 1940s to a book titled Arizona Goes to War: The Home Front and Front Lines During World War II, published by University of Arizona press.

Diane Burke Fessler and Jolynn Clarke

Ira Parsons, NHD student, wins Library of Congress Award

 Old news but always exciting and bears repeating . . . Scottsdale Student wins Library of Congress Award from Jewish News, Aug 9, 2024

The Library of Congress has awarded this year’s “Discovery or Exploration in History” prize to W. Ira Parsons, a Jewish freshman at Chaparral High School in Scottsdale, for his work, “The Fastest Man On Earth: How Col. Dr. John Stapp Revolutionized Space Medicine.”

Parsons was one of 500,000 students globally who entered historical research projects in this year’s National History Day® competition, held June 9–13 at the University of Maryland. The 2024 contest theme was Turning Points in History.

Winners from all 50 states, Washington D.C., U.S. territories, and international schools were invited to compete in the national round. 540 historians and education professionals served as judges. The Library of Congress awards its “Discovery or Exploration in History” prize to an outstanding National History Day® project in any category on American or international discovery or exploration. This year’s 50th Anniversary Honorary Committee included, among others, Librarian of Congress Carla Hayden; Archivist of the United States Colleen Shogan; Secretary of the Smithsonian Lonnie Bunch; historians Doris Kearns Goodwin, Douglas Brinkley, Heather Cox Richardson, and Walter Isaacson; documentary filmmaker Ken Burns; and journalists Jake Tapper, Jonathan Capehart, Judy Woodruff, and Wolf Blitzer.

“Participating in the National History Day National Contest in 2024 is a special honor,” said NHD Executive Director Dr. Cathy Gorn. “As the organization celebrates its 50th anniversary, the students at the National Contest witnessed history. They have shown an incredible level of critical thinking, analysis, and research skills that will benefit them beyond their participation in NHD. I am proud of the students’ achievements this contest year and look forward to how they apply the skills they developed during their research to their future careers and lives.”

Ira Parsons with NHD co-ordinator Stacey Trepanier