Writing of the Centennial History, 2005

In 1980 Sister Mary Rose Stockton, National Historian, produced the fifth edition of the History of Iota Sigma Pi. When the history was published the current National President Anne Sherren told Sister Mary Rose to begin work for the next edition of the history. At that time we thought that we printed enough histories to last for 10 years. In fact 25 years later we had used almost all of those histories just before the Centennial History came off of the press. In 1989 when Anne Sherren took the job as National Historian National Council said “the Green History is out of date it is almost 10 years old, we need a new edition of the History.” At that time Anne was teaching full time and also serving as Supplies Coordinator. At the 1993 the message was repeated and at the 1997 Interim Council Meeting Shannon Brown was appointed to be Supplies Coordinator with the idea that Anne could have the time needed to do more than collect the historical items.  At the 2000 Interim Council Meeting Sharon Vercellotti agreed to scan in the 1980 history as word documents. The scanned version was proof read by various members of National Council. In the winter of 2001 Anne had a sabbatical term and spent time working on the history especially the individual chapter histories and the award recipients. After she retired in June of 2001 and recovered from her broken hip Anne worked on the history full time. National Council Members would proof read the versions and offer suggestions. In January of 2002 Anne sent the what she thought to be final edition and the needed pictures to Sharon Vercellotti, co-editor for final editing.  While Anne was working on the written portion of the History Sharon was working on a grant from the Dreyfus foundation to pay for part or the printing and distribution of this edition of the history. The plan was to distribute the history at the Centennial Convention in Berkeley in June of 2002. One thing led to another and plans expanded. Anne did several more drafts and made additions and finally in 2004 Sharon got the last items from Anne. In July of 2005 the printed versions were distributed. The final draft was available at the 2005 Convention in June 2005. One of the points of the grant was that this history would be widely distributed to college and university libraries. Members are currently presenting copies to various persons and libraries. Anne has made presentations to the Chemical Heritage Foundation and to North Central College.  If you need a copy to present to a college or university library near you please contact Reiko Simmons, Supplies Coordinator.

Anne T. Sherren, Ph.D.

Co-editor of the Centennial History of Iota Sigma Pi

National Historian Iota Sigma Pi

Professor Emeritus of Chemistry, North Central College