Remembering Jann Warren-Findley
11 February 2015 – editors
Jannelle Warren-Findley will be posthumously awarded the Robert Kelley Award at the NCPH annual meeting in Nashville. Photo credit: Arizona State University
Dr. Jannelle Warren-Findley died at her home in Phoenix, Arizona, last week. Recently retired from Arizona State University, where she taught in and directed the public history program, she was a past President of the National Council on Public History (1997-98), an important voice in a number of areas of public history thought and practice (including women’s history and efforts to internationalize the field), and a dear friend and mentor to many. At the 2015 NCPH conference in Nashville, she will be honored posthumously with the Robert Kelley Award for distinguished service to the field. Some of her friends and colleagues offer their memories of Jann here. We welcome additional contributions and recollections via the comments at the end of this page.
Jann was the first person I met at ASU. She welcomed me with that warm, kind smile and took an active interest in everything I had to say, no matter how inane. In my time spent under her tutelage I grew both personally and professionally and I am truly proud to have had her as my dissertation chair, my mentor, and my friend. She was the embodiment of all my positive experiences as a graduate student and I will miss her tremendously.
Ahh, Jann.
Jann’s professional advice helped me turn a CRM project into an “academic” product = my thesis. She directed me to insert the word “paradigm” into the first page somewhere, and to replace “church building” with “ecclesiastical edifice.” It worked. I graduated.
It comforts me to think that her “go for it” approach to public history (and to life) has been transferred to her students and friends. And in that way, she lives on in each of us.
Miss you, Jann.
What sad news to hear about Jann. She was a joy to know. We will all miss her insights and positive outlook.
How sad to hear about Jan. We will all miss her insights and positive attitude.
I did not attend ASU, and I only met Dr. Warren-Findley a handful of times. But when I visited ASU three years ago, she was incredibly friendly, welcoming, and just plain great to me. I will always remember that.
This is a sad loss for everyone. My condolences.
I had the pleasure of being in one of Dr. Warren-Findley’s last cohort of public history students before her retirement. There is no doubt I would not be on my current path without her. I could list countless academic and professional opportunities I’ve had thanks to her help and encouragement, most importantly her sales pitch convincing me to change my focus to public history. I’m grateful to have learned from her. Her passion for bringing history to the public was inspirational.
Jann always encouraged her students to build every relationship and seize every opportunity, not only because it was practical career advice, but because she truly believed each of us had great potential. My favorite piece of advice she gave us was, “You oughta hustle all the time,” which became my graduate school mantra. Jann was forever a champion of her students, and she will be dearly missed.
I met Jann during my first year as public history manager for the Organization of American Historians. We worked together, with Paul Weinbaum, on the Historic Resource Study of Governors Island, but from the very beginning our relationship extended far beyond the parameters of that project. She was a strong advocate for public history within the wider historical profession and approached her work with a feminist perspective I found inspiring. I am proud to have had her as a mentor, and I will miss her terribly.
I first met Jannelle Warren-Findley when I went to work for Edith Mayo at the Smithsonian. I was an insecure and uncertain 22-year old recent college graduate, and I was fortunate to entered into the orbit of a wonderful, funny, supportive group of women historians. Jann Warren-Findley was among the best of them. She treated me like a peer and a colleague long before I had any credible reason to be considered either. She always made a point to reach out to me when our paths crossed at NCPH, and she offered me encouragement and advice as I found my own path. I appreciated her so much, not only because she was a generous scholar and mentor, but also because she was such an open soul, often irreverent, utterly without ego yet also authoritative and impressive. As a public historian, I am indebted to Jann Warren-Findley for her leadership and vision. As a human being, I was enriched by her kindness. I will miss her. I already do.
The public history community has lost a gem. I never had the good fortune to have her as a professor, but benefited from her support and tutelage during my years working for the NPS. The last two years we served on the NCPH Book Award committee, and again, I learned so much from her. Without a doubt, she will be greatly missed by me and so many others.