Recipients Of 2007 Appleman-Judd-Lewis Awards Named

Congratulations to Monika Mayr, Edwin Colón, and Rosie Pepito, the 2007 recipients of the Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award for Excellence in Cultural Resource Stewardship and Management. These awardees represent the very best in park cultural resource management.

Monika Mayr is superintendent at Vicksburg National Military Park in Mississippi, where her active leadership and inspiration has resulted in significant projects that preserve and interpret cultural resources associated with the Civil War battle at Vicksburg. Mayr’s guidance has led the park through major updates to planning documents in response to cultural resources issues arising from boundary expansion and battlefield restoration. She pushed the development of new interpretive programs and exhibits that present a broader and more culturally inclusive view of the Civil War, particularly the perspectives of civilians and African Americans. Mayr has actively sought public involvement from the community and stakeholder organizations to ensure the protection of natural and cultural resources as well as accurate and engaging presentations of American history. Mayr’s work at Vicksburg provides a model that will have an impact on battlefields and other historic sites throughout the NPS system.

Edwin Colón is facility manager at San Juan National Historic Site in San Juan, Puerto Rico, where he draws on 25 years of experience in park facilities management for the preservation of Spain’s largest masonry fortifications in the New World. Colón conducted extensive experimentation and materials testing to reconstruct the traditional lime masonry techniques used by the Spanish at San Juan beginning in the 16th century. His expertise became the basis for the San Juan National Historic Site Lime Laboratory and Workshop, a facility that consists of masons/artisans who play a central role in park restoration and preservation work. He is sought out as an authority on traditional lime techniques by preservation institutions across the globe. Colón’s considerable effort as researcher and as trainer of the next generation of masons ensures the preservation of the Spanish masonry at San Juan for the future.

Rosie Pepito is chief of cultural resources at Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where she has led interagency preservation efforts at Lake Mead, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument, with the NPS Submerged Resources Center, as well as partnership bureaus throughout southern Nevada. Pepito was instrumental in the development of a cultural resources program for Parashant that has already inventoried over 5,000 acres and documented over 100 archeological sites and 3 historical compounds. She has demonstrated skill and tenacity in working with the Southern Nevada Agency Partnership – a compendium of five federal agencies – to secure funding to address needs on an interagency basis. She has demonstrated a unique capability to rally for cultural resources, be it finding support between agencies and divisions, going on detail to help at other parks, or thinking creatively about solutions to problems facing the preservation and management of NPS cultural resources.

The Appleman-Judd-Lewis Award was established in 1970. It is named for three well-respected, long-time National Park Service employees: historian Roy E. Appleman, historical architect Henry A. Judd, and curator Ralph H. Lewis.