Each year, with the Governor's consent, the Missouri Humanities Council conducts a special awards ceremony at the Governor's Mansion in Jefferson City. The awards recognize exemplary service and achievement, and generally the lovely downstairs area of the mansion is filled to capacity with friends and family of the award recipients.

On October 10, the following people and organizations will receive the Governor's Humanities Award.

Community Heritage Awards

The Foundation for Restoration of Ste. Genevieve will be honored for its "Spirit Reunion" program in the Memorial Cemetery. The Foundation organized a cast of volunteers to portray early Ste. Genevieve pioneers. Spirit Reunions are held several times a year and the public is invited to tour the cemetery and hear the life story of various Ste. Genevieve citizens. The Reunion cast is composed of adults, teenagers, and grade school children. All are volunteers who research a character and dress in period clothing.

The Urich Community Historical Society, a seven-year-old organization that boasts a phenomenal membership numbering 80% of the town's population, will be honored for this stellar achievement of community involvement. In a small town numbering just under 500 people, the historical society has rehabilitated a building to serve as a community center and museum, and has created a "wall of honor" consisting of photographs and brief histories of ancestral war veterans dating back to the Civil War.

Gary Chilcote, St. Joseph, is honored for decades of work to promote tourism and awareness of Missouri's history. He has written historical pieces for the St. Joseph Gazette and the St. Joseph Press-News for the past forty years. He was a founding member of the Pony Express Historical Association, and was a key figure in developing the Patee House as a museum with National Landmark Status. Since 1994, he has been a full-time volunteer Director of the Patee House and the James Home. He was instrumental in the passage of a local tax to support the twelve historical museums in St. Joseph.

Dr. J. Frederick Fausz, Florissant, is honored for the breadth and impact of his statewide travels to promote interest in this region's history. A professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, Fred was the first Dean of the Pierre Laclede Honors College, where there is now a scholarship in his name. Since 1992 he has exemplified the idea of "public humanities," going far and wide in Missouri with a trunk load of replica artifacts to speak about the early relations between traders and Native Americans. He is a prolific author, and has served as an exhibit curator and as a consultant in national and regional projects.

Jack Roberts, St. Clair, is honored for his sustained attention to his adopted home since 1981. A former high school teacher and entrepreneur, he focused his attention on the need to preserve distinctive architecture and to create a local museum. After founding the St. Clair Museum in 1989, he acquired a donated building and in the next eight years develop exhibits on two floors. His involvement of people of all ages has been an example to all.

Excellence in Teaching Awards

Eric Langhorst, Liberty, has earned national recognition for his outstanding use of technology to involve his 8th-grade students in History. He uses podcasts and blogs to demonstrate the kaleidoscopic nature of an interest in lifelong learning. See http://speakingofhistory.blogspot.com and marvel at how a full-time teacher finds the time to generate such a high volume of high-quality content. This past fall, his students read Pat Hughes’ Guerilla Season, set in western Missouri in 1863. The students were able to correspond directly with Ms. Hughes through blogs. Another class in California, studying the Civil War, got wind of this internet conversation and asked to be included in it. This exercise was featured in USA Today on November 15, 2006, and in School Library Journal for December 2006. The Missouri Chapter of the DAR recently named Mr. Langhorst the Missouri History Teacher of the Year. In a surprise ceremony on April 23, 2007 Mr. Langhorst was also named Liberty Teacher of the Year.

William Luce, St. Joseph, has led three decades of students to a deeper understanding of United States’ and world history. Since 1977 he has coached hundreds of students and created what is almost certainly the most successful Quiz Bowl Team in Missouri history. Under Mr. Luce’s guidance, the Savannah High School Quiz Bowl Team won the National Championship in 1988 and remains the smallest public high school in the United States to have won a national title. The team has finished as one of the top ten teams nationally five times. It won the Missouri State Championship in 1994, 1995, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006. The team took second place in the state tournament in 2000, 2001, and 2005. In total, the team has won 143 Quiz Bowl tournaments. Not surprisingly, Mr. Luce has been recognized as Quiz Bowl Coach of the Year six times for his successes. He has inspired students to question the world around them and consider how the study of history can inform one’s personal future.

Book Awards

The Sedalia Democrat and writer Latisha Koetting are honored for a collection of oral histories of war veterans published under the title, Generations for Freedom: Honoring the Sacrifices of West Central Missouri Veterans from the Civil War to the War on Terror. The idea for the oral histories grew out of an editor's request for ideas related to Veterans' Day in 2000. Latisha Koetting proposed a series of first-person accounts, which became a popular feature, "The Veterans' Page." The book contains 142 stories, many of which were unknown to the immediate families until Latisha Koetting earned the trust of the interviewees.

Daniel T. Brown, Wentzville, is honored for his book, Westering River, Westering Trail, A History of St. Charles County, Missouri to 1849. The essence of the book is the compelling historical record of the people who explored and settled the land. This history is of individuals and families, of mothers and fathers, sons and daughters, and their contributions to the development of the county.