Attempting to set history straight

Re: “Good luck to Colo.’s new state historians ...,” Aug. 19 commentary

As the Colorado State Historian at History Colorado from 2008 until 2015, I read the two recent editorials by my successor, Patty Limerick, with great interest. I agree with much of what Dr. Limerick has said and observed about the current leadership of History Colorado. In 2015, Gov. John Hickenlooper dissolved the organization’s standing board of directors and replaced it with nine new directors responsible to the Governor’s Office of Boards and Commissions.

At the time, Gov. Hickenlooper pledged to create a board that represented Colorado’s cultural and geographic diversity. Instead, the board in general lacked the promised diversity, and it contained no educators, archaeologists, public historians, community organizers, or others capable of supporting the organization’s educational mission along with the bottom line. Rather than serving under compromised leadership, I chose to resign in the fall of 2015.

Dr. Limerick’s frustrations, consequently, mirror my own. Her solution could go farther. I would ask the governor to consider recruiting new board members who fulfill his initial promise of geographic and cultural diversity, and it should include members who advocate for History Colorado’s educational, scholarly, and community service objectives alongside its business goals. At its best, it could be the very forum for applying the lessons of history to today’s civic issues that Dr. Limerick calls for. Such a diverse board might be better positioned to support an intellectually independent State Historian (or historians) who creatively communicates Colorado history to a broad public.

William J. Convery, St. Paul, Minn.

Patty Limerick is certainly adept at drawing attention to the slings and arrows she has suffered at the hands of an uncaring bureaucracy. Perhaps if she were slightly less condescending, she would be more persuasive.

Travis White, Denver