The Association for Gravestone Studies

Forbes Award
Oakley Award

The Harriette Merrifield Forbes Award - 2008
was awarded at the AGS 2008 conference and annual meeting in
Amherst, Massachusetts
to

Roberta Halporn

who made an
Outstanding Contribution
to the Field of Gravestone Studies

Roberta has spent years of research with numerous publications on the subject of Thanatology, including a “Thanatology Thesaurus”, which investigates the circumstances surrounding a person's death, the grief experienced by the deceased's loved ones, and larger social attitudes towards death such as ritual and memorialization. She runs a referral service for people in need of grief counselors and publishes books & pamphlets on death and gravestone art.

Over the years she has led school age children through Green-Wood Cemetery on tours tailored to their age groups and also thematic tours for adults. This experience showed the way to an early primer, “Lessons from the Dead: The Graveyard as a Classroom for the Study of the Life Cycle,” introducing school kids to graveyards to help aid in the education of death.

As an active member of AGS, she has given lectures, interviews and attended conferences on Death and Dying, Genealogy and Gravestones. An advocate of ethnicity in cemeteries, Roberta’s research brought about published works on the American-Jewish, Chinese-American and African-American cemeteries.

Roberta has also become an expert on grave rubbings and tombstone craftsmanship. Teaching numerous groups on gravestone rubbings, she has been especially active in Brooklyn and elsewhere, with History and Arts groups in reference to gravestones. Her best selling book “New York Is a Rubber's Paradise: A Guide to New York City Cemeteries in the Five Boroughs,” capitalizes on the popular tours of the city’s 132 cemeteries.

As the founder and Director of the non-profit New York City based Center for Thanatology Research and Education, Roberta for 24 years has set out to change American attitudes toward death and the study of Mortality.

***AND TO***

Gary Collison

who made an
Outstanding Contribution
to the Field of Gravestone Studies

A long-time AGS member and editor of Markers XXI-XXIV, frequent contributor and supporter of AGS and friend, Gary Collison died of cancer at his home in York, PA early last autumn.

Gary had a distinguished 30-year academic career as a professor of English and American Studies at Penn State University, York, and taught courses in American studies, American literature, humanities and writing, as well as honors courses. He was founder and chair of the Mid-Atlantic American Culture/Popular Culture Association's 'Death in American Culture' section and also a known author with his first published book “Shadrach Minkins: from Fugitive Slave to Citizen,” a work that earned him a Pulitzer Prize nomination.

Throughout his career, Gary has received numerous research grants and has incorporated his research interests into classroom experiences for students. It was not unusual to find Gary and his students visiting a local cemetery to study the gravestones. His research projects include early German-American gravestones -- identifying, photographing and interpreting pre-1850 decorated vernacular stones in south central Pennsylvania. He published numerous articles and papers and made presentations throughout the United States and Canada.

For us at AGS Gary had many significant contributions to the field of gravestone studies: as a frequent lecturer at AGS and ACA conferences, and mentor to many in (and out of) his role as editor of Markers. To quote Richard Meyer, “uncompromising in his standards of excellence but at the same time guided unfailingly by the principles of humanity which were so apparent to those of us who knew him – kindness, humility, good humor, enthusiasm for and appreciation of the ideas of others.”

***
Please join the AGS Board of Trustees in celebration of this
outstanding contribution to the field of gravestone studies.

The Oakley Certificate Of Merit - 2008

An Oakley Award was presented to Minxie and Jim Fannin. Minxie and Jim have provided both consultation and conservation services for over 20 years in historic burying grounds all over New England, New York, and Ohio. The Fannin’s have had substantial experience in training and working with volunteers in cemetery conservation; to include preservation plans, gravestone & monument condition assessments, and execution of stone conservation treatments. They have been long-time members of AGS and both taught numerous Conservation Workshops, including an advance workshop for many of our AGS Conferences. It is from their expertise in the field of conservation that they have provided written instructions on Tools and Materials for Gravestone Cleaning Projects for AGS; which are also posted on numerous other gravestone websites as directives for conservation projects

***

An Oakley Award was presented to Jeffrey Kuschka. To achieve his Eagle Scout Merit Badge, Jeffrey began a community project in compiling a written record to the location of all of the damaged gravestones in the Bridge Street Cemetery in Northampton, Massachusetts. He surveyed all of the 400 gravestones and developed a manual showing where every damaged gravestone was located, with a description of the condition of each stone based on its particular state of disrepair. Once completed, the Department of Public Works and Jeffrey took the guidebook into the field and decided which gravestones would be repaired. Jeffrey then led 25 volunteers in the repairing, rebuilding and cleaning of gravestones in the Bridge Street Cemetery; with over 125 monuments & headstones completed during this project.

Please join the AGS Board of Trustees in celebration of these outstanding contributions to the field of gravestone studies.

The AGS Forbes Award

The Forbes Award is usually, presented annually by the AGS Board of Trustees to honor an individual, institution, or organization in recognition of exceptional service to the field of gravestone studies. The award is named for Harriette Merrifield Forbes of Worcester, Massachusetts, who photographed gravestones and studied their carvers in the early 1900s. In 1927 she published a book titled Gravestones of Early New England and the Men Who Made Them.

The Forbes Award is the highest honor bestowed by the Association.

The presentation is usually made at the Awards Banquet during the Annual Conference. A reception precedes the banquet at which the recipient is the guest of honor. The President makes a presentation speech indicating why the person or organization was chosen and giving a summary of the work accomplished. A framed certificate is presented along with a photograph of Harriette Merrifield Forbes. The recipient usually gives an acceptance speech.

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Harriette Merrifield Forbes Recipients

1977 Daniel Farber
1978 Ernest Caufield
1979 Peter Benes
1980 None Given
1981 Allan Ludwig
1982 Jim Slater
1983 Hilda Fife
1984 Ann Parker & Avon Neal
1985 Jessie Lie Farber
1986 Louise Tallman
1987 Pamela & Frederick Burgess
1988 Laurel Gabel
1989 Betty Willsher
1990 Theodore Chase
1991 Lynette Strangstad
1992 Ralph Tucker
1993 Deborah Trask
1994 Barbara Rotundo
1995 Dillon R. Dorrell, Sr.
1996 Historic Burial Ground Initiative, Boston, Mass.
1997 Vincent F. Luti
1998 Rosalee F. Oakley, Richard E. Meyer
1999 No award given
2000 James Deetz, Warren Roberts (posthumously), Edwin Dethlefsen (posthumously)
2001 Mary-Ellen Jones, M. Ruth Little
2002 John Sterling
2003 James Blachowicz
2004 Helen Sclair
2005 Terry Jordan (posthumously)
2006 The National Center for Preservation Technology and Training
2007 Gray Williams

The Oakley Certificate of Merit

The Oakley Certificate of Merit is presented periodically by the AGS Board of Trustees to individuals and groups that have helped to advance the mission of the Association. Named for long-time members Rosalee and Fred Oakley, the Certificate of Merit is designed to honor those whose work in the field of gravestone studies that is worthy of recognition by AGS. The award consists of a certificate, presented by the Board of Trustees, as well as a gift of a book to the honoree's local library, in their name on behalf of AGS. Whenever possible the award presentation will be made by a local AGS member. Each year's recipients will have their names printed in the conference program book and annual report. In addition they will be acknowledged at a reception held in their honor at the conference.

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1997 Fred & Rosalee Oakley
1998 Fred Fredette, Friends of Center Cemetery
1999 Harriet Ryan & Phyllis Lohrum, Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery
2000 John O'Brien, Mary Reilly-McNellan, James A. Smith, Henry "Red" Sutowski,
Arthur and Frances Hyde, Charles Marchant
2001 Nick Crepeault, Alicia Paresi
2002 Juliana Fuchs, Penny Lambeth, Bonaventure Historical Society
2003 Melissa Fleming, Rebecca Gorman, Betty Myers
2004 Emma Dragon, Adopt-A-Plot (Hampden, Mass.), Robert Carlson, Craig Dolder,
Norman Saul
2005 None given
2006 Historic Richmond Foundation, Fred Burdick, Kimberly Kenney, Brandon Kenyon, Jennifer Cerasuolo, Bob Posson, Olde Historical Burial Ground Joint Committee of the First Presbyterian Church
2007 Gaynell Stone, Ph.D., Linda K. Lewis

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