In the October 2013 edition of the Communicator, I asked our entire membership for help in locating two very important MBAA publications. Both are "special edition" publications that I consider to be critical for establishing baseline histories for most of our local districts. Last May, my wife and I made the 10-hour journey from our home in Columbus, Ohio, to Iowa State University, which houses our MBAA archives and historical documents. Generally, I wanted to get a sense of what we had there. Specifically, I wanted to find both of these special edition publications. Much to my horror, neither were archived in our collection.
Toward the end of last year, longtime MBAA member and past president Ray Klimovitz (1997–1998) responded to my request and promptly sent me BOTH publications from his personal collection.
The first is a 1962 special edition of our “Communications” (which evolved into our “Communicator”). It celebrates MBAA's 75th anniversary, includes a short, succinct history of each local district, and is pictured below.
The second document was self-published by MBAA in 1987. It celebrates MBAA's 100th anniversary, also includes an updated short, succinct history of each local district, and is pictured below.
I am happy to report that I have created copies of each district's history from both the 1962 and 1987 documents. This endeavor was a labor-of-love...and far from professional...utilizing my digital camera, a macro lens, manipulation of natural light and reflective white poster board. The end result is a legible digital image of each history. The pages for my home district are displayed below. On the left is the history written by our 1962 District President George Rubey. On the right is the history written by our 1987 District President Mark Phipps.
Combining the information from the two anniversary documents provides a beginning, baseline history for my home district. I will post both of these, combine them into a single history, and update that as best I can. My hope is that other local districts will be able to do the same. In an upcoming Communicator, I will list the district histories that we have available from these two treasured publications.
Once again, a big THANK YOU to Ray Klimovitz for making this possible!
Cheers!
