Archivist proud to have helped preserve university history - Chippewa Herald

As archivist at University of Wisconsin-Stout for 29 years, Kevin Thorie can appreciate the meaning of the adage, The journey is the reward.

Year after year as he worked at the university, he came to love the school, which never ceased to amaze him with its rich and colorful past.

Ive loved this job. I would learn something new about the institution every day. Its fascinating to me to see how it changed through the years, Thorie said.

Thorie, the second archivist in university history, retired recently. He is most proud of having brought UW-Stouts historical records into the computer age. His career coincided with the widespread adoption of computer use and the invention of the Internet.

Thorie was part of a technological revolution in information services. The advent of the Internet is the greatest thing that ever happened to archives. The retrieval of information is so easy, Thorie said.

Much of the information that used to require a trip to the Robert S. Swanson Learning Center to page through old books and documents now is available online from anywhere in the world. On any given day you might get email thank yous from New Zealand, Australia, Norway. People from all over the world use our searchable indexes, Thorie said.

Getting it all online

Thorie, aided by community volunteers and assistant archivist Robin Melland, took on the task of turning hundreds of thousands of paper records into downloadable files at the UW-Stout Area Research Center, which operates in conjunction with the State Historical Society of Wisconsin.

UW-Stouts ARC similar centers operate at other UW System campuses houses records for Dunn, Barron and Pepin counties, including births, deaths, marriages and divorces. The ARC also has special collections, such as the Knapp, Stout & Co., Company records, dating to 1841.

Thorie, a Red Wing, Minn., native and UW-River Falls alumnus, became a human encyclopedia on the subject of UW-Stout while leading the effort to digitize university history, including putting yearbooks, catalogs, magazines and other publications and information online.

No one will ever be hired again to do this because its been done. Im lucky to have the opportunity to learn so much about Stout, he said.

Watershed moments

He knows 120 years of university history. There are the watershed moments: 1911 for example when the school was in limbo after the death of founder and benefactor James Huff Stout. The state took the institution over after lobbying by President Lorenzo Dow Harvey.

There was 2001, when UW-Stout became the first university to receive the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award.

In between, when the university strayed from its original applied learning mission in the 1930s and 1940s, this institution almost died, Thorie said. The leaders since then, William J. Micheels, Robert S. Swanson and current Chancellor Charles W. Sorensen, each have continued to move the university forward by following the schools mission while expanding curriculum, he said.

UW-Stout, designated in 2007 as Wisconsins Polytechnic University, had record enrollment of more than 9,300 in 2010-11.

Untold stories

Thorie also came across untold stories in university history, such as when former vice chancellor Ralph Iverson was told to cut a job from his division. Iverson instead offered his own job. In the early 1900s, James Huff Stout, who oversaw education in the state Senate, turned down an offer to have his school become a state teacher training institution, or State Normal School. That offer eventually went to Eau Claire, leading to what now is UW-Eau Claire.

James Huff Stouts goal was to train students to run a business and own it, promoting learning, industry, skill and honor.

Thorie loved working with history, even when it meant 60 to 70 hours a week during his early years at UW-Stout. When you touch a historical document you get such a wonderful feeling. This is something that will be preserved for 500 years because of the way you handled it, Thorie said.

The idea of your hands actually touching a letter Senator Stout wrote or the universitys articles of incorporation its exciting to actually do that.

Thorie admires the enterprising James Huff Stout. Prior to starting Stout Manual Training School in 1891, Stout was an officer in the Knapp, Stout & Co., Company, the worlds largest lumber operation, based in Menomonie.

Hes someone who would have been wonderful to meet. There were many, many lawsuits against Knapp, Stout but not one against Senator Stout. How on earth could it be that he was that well-perceived? Thorie said.

Thorie, who lives in Boyceville, helped start the Stout Historical Association, part of the Dunn County Historical Association. He hopes to hone his fishing skills while in retirement and volunteer at the historical associations and the Russell J. Rassbach Heritage Museum in Menomonie. He is also updating his history of the university and has started a new book about the school, Stoutcapades.

Paul Roberts has been appointed university and Area Research Center archivist on an interim basis effective July 1. Roberts has served as director of the University Library since 2006. Bill Johnston has been appointed interim director of the library effective July 1. Johnston has been Collections Development librarian at UW-Stout since 2003.

For more information about the UW-Stout Area Research Center, go to http://www.uwstout.edu/lib/archives.