Past Recipients of the Humanities Washington Award

The Humanities Washington Award is presented annually by Humanities Washington in memory of Heather C. Frank of Yakima, who was a dedicated member and articulate supporter of the public humanities throughout her lifetime. The annual recipient of this award is honored for devoting imaginative leadership and extraordinary vision to increase public understanding of cultural heritage, community values, and humanity's creative achievements.

2005 - Ruth Kirk
Writer and naturalist Ruth Kirk was honored for her work over several decades as an author, photographer, naturalist and teacher. An official ceremony with a keynote talk by prize-winning author William Dietrich was held October 14th. 2005 at 6:30 PM at the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma.    ...more

2004 - Tom Ikeda
Tom Ikeda is the founding executive director of Densho (meaning "to pass on to future generations"), a Seattle-based nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving rapidly vanishing testimonies of the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. In eight years of unpaid full-time service, Ikeda has led Densho's drive to collect 400 hours of video oral histories, 2,000 historical images, and a curriculum on civil rights co-developed with the SPICE program of Stanford University.

All the Densho materials are offered free of charge on the website www.densho.org. The life stories, historical images, and contextual readings not only honor one ethnic group that suffered injustice in a past period of national anxiety; they encourage people of all backgrounds to think critically about the precarious balance of personal freedom and public security that we face today.

Born in Seattle, Ikeda earned degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering and an MBA from the University of Washington. In 1995, Ikeda creatively applied his training and experience in developing multimedia products for Microsoft toward safeguarding a cultural legacy for public benefit. Organizing community volunteers and consulting scholars, he developed the online archive of digitized interviews, photos, and artifacts that document a much neglected aspect of our national history. Under Ikeda's direction, Densho has earned a national reputation for excellence and innovation in preserving and disseminating primary sources of American history. Densho has donated excerpts of the compelling interviews to exhibitions at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles, the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York, and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. Recently Densho has contracted with the National Park Service to produce video oral histories documenting the incarceration camp at Minidoka, Idaho.

2003 - Nancy Pearl
Nancy Pearl is the former Executive Director of the Washington Center for the Book at the Seattle Public Library. Respected nationally for her book knowledge, she received the Public Library Association's 2001 Allie Beth Martin Award, which "recognizes a public librarian demonstrating a range and depth of knowledge about books and other library materials and the distinguished ability to share that knowledge." Ms. Pearl is the author of Now Read This: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1978 - 1998, Now Read This II: A Guide to Mainstream Fiction, 1990-2001, Book Lust and More Book Lust. She reviews books for local and national publications, and reviews books regularly for National Public Radio's "Morning Edition" and NPR's affiliate station KUOW in Seattle. In 1998, Library Journal named her Fiction Reviewer of the Year. In 2004 she became the 50th winner of the Women’s National Book Association Award for her extraordinary contribution to the world of books.

Nancy Pearl is one of the extraordinary individuals who work in Washington State to ensure that the humanities are a part of our lives. The public humanities programs that have flourished under her direction at the Washington Center for the Book give us the opportunity to examine how we think, what we value, to exchange ideas, and to consider the complexity of the human experience.

2002 - Karen and Ralph Munro
Karen Munro can count among her many accomplishments the distinction of being one of first paid employees of Humanities Washington (then Washington Commission for the Humanities). She also served on Humanities Washington's board of trustees, first for an elected term and then as a gubernatorial appointee. In addition, she served on the board of the Federation for State Humanities Councils. Karen has been an articulate advocate for humanities, testifying before the U.S. House of Representatives on behalf of Humanities Washington and the other state humanities councils. She continues to be a strong supporter of Humanities Washington and the humanities.

Since his election in 1980 to the first of five terms as Secretary of State of Washington State, Republican Ralph Munro has become one of Washington's best-known and most beloved politicians. As Secretary of State, he was a good friend of the humanities and was known for his bipartisanship and civic activism. Since his retirement in 2001, Ralph has continued to be active in improving the communities of Washington state through his work with such organizations as the Ralph Munro Seminars for Teachers, VoteHere, and the Ralph Munro Endowment for Civic Education at Western Washington University. In 2002 he began a term as President of the Seattle Downtown Rotary.

2001 - Delma Tayer
Delma Tayer began her career in 1963 at Yakima Valley Community College (YVCC) teaching composition, literature, painting, art history, and humanities. In addition to her teaching duties, Delma was Director of the Larson Gallery (located on the YVCC campus) from 1975-1983. She is a published author and has had many solo and group exhibitions in painting and ceramics. Delma is a past president of the Board of Trustees of Humanities Washington. Her influence can be felt well beyond Yakima Valley as demonstrated by the numerous awards and honors bestowed upon her. She was a Ford Foundation scholar and received the Allied Arts Council Award for Contribution to Excellence in Arts, Woman of Achievement Award, the John N. Terrey Award, and was the Larson Gallery's 2000 Woman of the Year.

2000 - Linda Jaech
In 1996, Linda Jaech, a technical and freelance writer, had the idea to develop a literary arts center, a place for writers and readers to meet and build audiences for new work. She recognized that Seattle was lacking this type of support for its writing community. She enlisted the help of two friends, writers Andrea Lewis and Frances McCue, to begin the research for developing a center. In 1997, Linda provided the seed money that established Richard Hugo House, named for a local poet who wrote beautifully about overlooked places. In choosing Linda as the Washington Humanities Award recipient, the panel cited her vision: using business principles to establish a thriving non-profit organization; her approach: including a broad-based community process to the development of Hugo House and its programming; and her philanthropic stewardship: providing not only financial resources but her expertise, collaborative work model, and board leadership in helping create Richard Hugo House.

1999 - Barbara Krohn.
As part of her lifetime commitment to the humanities in Washington, Barbara Krohn has held leadership positions with Washington Trust for Historic Preservation, Fort Vancouver Historical Society of Clark County, Pioneer Association of the State of Washington, Association of King County Historical Organizations, Burke Museum, and Humanities Washington, among others. Her career in history and publishing earned her leadership posts with the Educational Press Association of America and Pi Lambda Theta and many honors, including the Distinguished Service to Journalism Award and the Distinguished Newspaper Advisers Award. As creator and publisher of Landmarks magazine, Barbara provided the voice for historic preservation in Washington and promoted numerous organizations dedicated to the humanities.

1998 - Sherry Prowda
Sherry Prowda founded Seattle Arts & Lectures in the Fall 1988 with a six-part series of lectures by prominent writers at the First United Methodist Church in Seattle. The program has grown to seven lectures annually and has moved to a larger venue, Benaroya Hall in Seattle. The series has included authors such as John Updike, the late Wallace Stegner, Isabel Allende, the late Saul Bellow, Louise Erdrich, the late Michael Dorris, and Elaine May.

1997 - John Terrey
John Terrey served as Executive Director of the State Board for Community College Education for more than 20 years, as a college administrator at Central Washington University, and as a teacher at Bellevue High School. Since 1972 he has been an adjunct faculty member in higher education at University of Washington and served on the Board of Trustees of Evergreen State College. He served as the second Board President of Humanities Washington (then Washington Commission for the Humanities) and was one of the founders of Friends of the Humanities, our membership organization.

1996 - Washington State Holocaust Education Resource Center
Humanities Washington recognized the dedication of Holocaust survivors who, through the Holocaust Center's speakers bureau, donate hours of their time to share their stories with school and community groups around the state. By sharing their own painful experiences, these volunteers demonstrate the dangers of intolerance and prejudice and give personal impact to broader historical events. In addition to the Speakers Bureau, the Center provides educational materials on the Holocaust to public schools across Washington state, sponsors the annual Jacob Friedman Holocaust Creative Writing Contest for students in the sixth through the twelfth grades, maintains an archive of videotaped oral histories of Holocaust survivors, and provides a traveling exhibit which tells the story of two Holocaust survivors who live in Washington state.

1995 - Ron Chew
Ron Chew's work has spanned more than 25 years in community journalism and the development of educational programs. In all his efforts, the humanities in general, and history in particular, have been made accessible and interesting to a broad audience without sacrificing a high quality of research and scholarship. He has tackled controversial topics such as the effects of Japanese American internment and the Vietnam War with sensitivity and balance. In 1991, Ron became Director of the Wing Luke Asian Museum. Under his leadership, the museum has been recognized both locally and nationally for its successful involvement of community scholars and volunteers in all phases of exhibit development. The results have been award-winning exhibits and publications covering a broad range of community histories, including One Song, Many Voices about the Asian Pacific American experience; Executive Order 9066 about the effects of Japanese American internment and The First 100 Years, about Seattle's Chinese Americans.

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