I just wanted to bump this thread because our fiftieth came and went and there are many updates....
Well, the person in charge of writing the history dropped the ball. Which, in retrospect, wasn't a great surprise. One thing I learned from that experience is that books can't be written by committee.
A year after the 50th, I was elected Alumni Association President. After spending a year strengthening our service program and beginning to "fix" some of our systems, I realized that I will probably have this office for a while. It's not exactly a coveted position.
But, I am hoping that the signature of my service as President will be that book-length history I mentioned back in 05. I must say that all of you contributed some very good advice!
Since that time, I have acquired (thanks to members of the National History and Archives Committee) PDFs of many old Torch and Trefoil national newsletters. I haven't even looked through them lately, but I am certain the period from 1956 to the present will be helpful.
The undergraduates have a strong chapter with a very strong historian (who is an APO legacy herself). I think I can create a research team with her leading the students.
I am prepared to write the whole thing on my own, giving myself until September of 2010 to finish it. That gives us a few months for edits and revisions and a few more months for printing.
A few days ago, I printed out every article from three online campus newspapers with significant references to my chapter.
I can send an undergrad to the library to photocopy the APO pages from yearbooks since 1956.
The alumni association records duplicate many of the items from the official university APO archives.
And through the magic of google, we are finding biographical information about our older alums.
I think my summer project will be to finish gathering the secondary sources, then by the fall determine the process for locating primary sources.
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