Conference of Inter-Mountain Archivists

The Conference of Inter‐Mountain Archivists (CIMA) announces the recipients of the 2011 CIMA Awards. Max J. Evans, of the LDS Church History Department, is the designated recipient of the 2011 CIMA Life‐Time Achievement Award. Stephen C. Sturgeon, of Utah State University, is the designated recipient of the 2011 CIMA Service Award.

The two honors (the CIMA Life‐Time Achievement Award and the CIMA Service Award) are bestowed annually to individuals who have demonstrated considerable service and leadership in the inter‐mountain west region, and who have made significant contributions to the CIMA organization and/or the archival profession. The CIMA Life‐Time Achievement Award recognizes the work of an entire career, spanning the course of several years. Likewise, the CIMA Service Award recognizes important work and activity, but it is given to someone who may not yet qualify for the Life‐Time Achievement Award. Both awards are presented with the highest honor and gratitude by the peers and colleagues of the recipients. The award recipients will be honored during a luncheon at the CIMA Spring Conference in Boise, Idaho (May 19‐20, 2011).

Max J. Evans of the LDS Church History Department, named recipient of the 2011 CIMA Life‐Time Achievement Award

The CIMA Awards Committee (with confirmation by the CIMA Officers & Council) has selected Max J. Evans to receive the 2011 CIMA Life‐Time Achievement Award. Evans, a Utah native, was selected for his decades‐long work and advancements in the uses of technology in archives, electronic records, and for promoting the wider uses of archives. Evans was a founding member of CIMA, and he is a nationally recognized figure in the archives profession. He was elected Fellow of the Society of American Archivists in 1984. Evans began his career in the Archives Division of the LDS Church Historical Department, in Salt Lake City, his first professional position after earning a master’s degree in American history at Utah State University. After six years, Evans moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he spent nearly ten years at the Wisconsin Historical Society, working first in the Archives as Head of Processing, Deputy State Archivist, and Acting Director of the Archives and Manuscripts Division; and then in the Society’s Library as its Director.

Eventually, Max J. Evans returned to his native state as Director of the Utah State Historical Society in Salt Lake City. After 16 years, he gave up his editorial, historic preservation, and fund‐raising duties in that position (as well as his love for hiking and skiing in the mountains) for the inside‐the‐beltline allure of the National Historic Preservation and Records Commission. In recent years, Evans has returned to the LDS Church History Department as the Senior Archives Advisor. He hopes to retire in a few years , at which time he plans travel ‐‐ for pleasure, not for work ‐‐ with his wife, Mary, enjoy their five children and twelve grandchildren in Utah, Maryland, and Florida, and tend to his hobby of perpetual home improvement.

Stephen C. Sturgeon of Utah State University, named recipient of the 2011 CIMA Service Award
The CIMA Awards Committee (with confirmation by the CIMA Officers & Council) has selected Stephen C. Sturgeon to receive the 2011 CIMA Service Award. Sturgeon is the Manuscript Curator in the Special Collections & Archives Division of the Merrill–Cazier Library at Utah State University (USU), where he is also an adjunct associate professor of history. Sturgeon was selected for his leadership in several archival and historical organizations. In the Society of American Archivists, Sturgeon served on the Steering Committee for the Manuscripts Repositories Section, as well as a term as chair of the Hamer‐Kegan Award Committee. Steve is a past chair of the Utah Manuscript Association, and he served as president of CIMA in 2002‐2003. Sturgeon joined the faculty at USU in 1999, and he received tenure and a promotion from assistant to associate librarian in 2005.

Originally a native of the San Francisco Bay Area, Sturgeon subsequently lived in Missouri, attended college in Iowa, earned his Master’s of Library Science from UC-Berkeley, and a Ph.D. in American History from the University of Colorado at Boulder, where he worked with Patricia Nelson Limerick. The University of Arizona Press published his dissertation in 2002 as a book entitled, The Politics of Western Water: The Congressional Career of Wayne Aspinall. Sturgeon’s most recent publication is “The Disappearance of Everett Ruess and the Discovery of Utah’s Red Rocks Country,” a chapter in Utah in the Twentieth Century.

Sturgeon and his wife and daughter live in Logan, Utah; where he also serves as an ordained deacon at St. John’s Episcopal Church. In May, Sturgeon will leave his job at USU in order to complete a one–year residency in the chaplaincy–training program at St. Mark’s Hospital in Salt Lake City.

About CIMA
Founded in 1973, the Conference of Inter‐Mountain Archivists (CIMA) is an association of archivists, conservators, historians, and other archives professionals in the inter‐mountain west. Its membership is open to all, and institutions in Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, and New Mexico are well represented.

Potential CIMA Award recipients are nominated by the CIMA membership‐at‐large. Recipients are then selected by the CIMA Awards Committee. This committee is comprised of appointed representatives from each CIMA member state. Award selections are confirmed by majority vote of the elected CIMA Officers and Council.

The 2011 CIMA Awards Committee is comprised of the following members: Melanie Sturgeon, Arizona State History and Archives Division; Alan Virta, Boise State University; Jeff Kintop, Nevada State Archives; Steve Hussman, New Mexico State University; and Gregory Thompson, University of Utah. The non‐voting chair of the committee is Michael Frazier, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Various aspects of committee work was facilitated by Walter Jones, University of Utah; and John Murphy, Brigham Young University.

Last year, Guy Rocha, Nevada State Archivist (retired), was the recipient of the 2010 CIMA Life‐Time Achievement Award. Su Kim Chung, Manuscripts Librarian, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, was the recipient of the 2010 CIMA Service Award.

Questions or comments may be directed to:
CIMA Awards Committee
PO BOX 2048
Salt Lake City, UT 84110
or
Michael Frazier, CIMA Awards Committee chair
UNLV Libraries
4505 Maryland Parkway @ box 457010
Las Vegas, NV 89154‐7010
Phone: 702‐895‐2240
E‐mail: michael.frazier@unlv.edu