Letters, diaries, maps, speeches - documents that to many people may seem stuffy, musty, boring and hard to read. But two men from Northwest Arkansas couldn’t stay away from primary documents such as these. And the Washington County Historical Society thanks them for it.
Bob Besom of Fayetteville and Tom Dillard, formerly of Farmington and currently retired near Benton, have been named the 2013 Distinguished Citizens by the society that works to preserve county history.
Dillard got his start in history thanks to primary documents. Waddy Moore, a history professor during Dillard’s junior year at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway, required each student to develop an original research paper using primary documents.
“I discovered the wonder of doing original, primary research,” Dillard said. “It was a formative factor in my career and life.”
For three decades, Besom has collected documents related to Arkansas history. He started as a graduate student at the University of Arkansas, researching that history.
“I found we’ve not done a good job of recording history and preserving these documents,” he said.
Upon his retirement from the Shiloh Museum of Ozark History in 2005, Besom gave his documents to the University of Arkansas Special Collections archive.
“I told Tim Nutt (the director of the archives) that I had always wanted to be an archivist,” Besom said. “I told him, if he would teach me how to process these documents, I would volunteer my time and work to preserve them. I spend a lot of time doing that because it was a huge accumulation.”
Besom serves as the director emeritus of the Shiloh Museum in Springdale, a position he’s held since his retirement as director in 2005, according to information provided by the historical society. “Under his leadership, the museum grew significantly, adding a new 22,000-square-foot museum building in 1999,” the news release states.
Besom previously had worked with the UA’s archives, the Arkansas Commemorative Commission and the Old State House Museum. During his time at the Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, he worked to list the Washington-Willow Historic District in Fayetteville on the National Register of Historic Places.
Dillard retired in 2012 as the head of Special Collections for the UA library, a position he’d held since 2004. He served as a National Guard historian, director of the Arkansas Department of Heritage and the first archivist for UCA. He created an archive and special collections that evolved into the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies for the Central Arkansas Library System and is a previous board member of the Washington County Historical Society.
Dillard counted the highlights of his career as the conception and organization of the effort to pass the state law that requires every student take a one-semester Arkansas history course during his secondary school career, and the support and funding he garnered for the online Encyclopedia of Arkansas. He continues to research and write an Arkansas history column appearing each Sunday in the Perspectives section of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
“It was my goal, my mission in life, to rescue Arkansas history from basic oblivion and make it available to the public,” Dillard said.
Besom, who adopted the Ozarks as his home, continues his learning with events and time periods that catch his interest. Recently, he studied Civil War battles, thinking of his great-grandfather who was in the middle of that war. He also is drawn to early 20th-century economic development in Arkansas, especially the lumber industry.
And Besom wants to get back to knowing “ordinary folks in the Ozarks” as he did before he was “distracted” by his archives.
“I look at a very special little town of Falcon’s Creek, north of Red Star in Madison County - it’s almost in Newton County,” he said. Many from this town moved west, and he has made several trips to Oregon and Washington to interview emigrants and descendants.
Dillard, who grew up in the country near Mount Ida, got the Arkansas bug during his seventh-grade year, taking a required Arkansas history class in his rural country school. Each student was assigned a county to research and present in a detailed report, and Dillard got Izard County.
“I didn’t know a thing about Izard County,” he said. “I didn’t even know how to pronounce Izard County.” Today, he can recall the county was named for George Izard, a former governor of the state, and that the main cities are Calico Rock and Melbourne.
“I got the realization that Arkansans can be willing to step outside the main stream and do things differently, do their own things,” Dillard said.
He will spend much of his retirement time gardening, he said.
The men will be honored Sunday during the historical society’s annual membership luncheon meeting starting at noon at Mermaids restaurant in Fayetteville. Tickets are $25 and available from the society.
FAST FACTS
Washington County Historical Society
Mission — To preserve the history of Washington County and present it to the residents of the county Membership — $25, includes subscription to society’s historical journal, “Flashback” Other — The society offers educational programs, historical lectures and commemorative events throughout the year. Luncheon — Distinguished Citizens honored at noon Sunday at Mermaids, 2217 N. College Ave. in Fayetteville. Tickets — $25 Reservations — (479) 521-2970 or stop by Headquarters House, 118 E. Dickson St., between 1 and 4 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday
Style, Pages 32 on 10/03/2013