Historical Preservation

Since 2001, the Wright State University Retirees Association has been involved with a project to produce an oral history of the university from faculty, staff and students who were involved in the early years. The late Lewis Shupe always had a special place in his heart for WSU and its very distinctive history, and it was in this spirit that he helped found the WSURA Historic Preservation Committee to help preserve this very special history.

One thing that Lew found so fascinating was that due to the young age of the university, and the continued relationships that WSURA helped foster, we could still talk to many of the founding faculty and staff. Why not utilize this resource for an interview project to capture the history of WSU through their stories? Partnering with Special Collections & Archives, the project started small with just a small tape recorder, but has continued for almost 20 years years, now comprising 44 interviews.

After Lew Shupe died in 2016, Dan Abrahamowicz took over responsibility for continuing the oral history project. When Kathy Morris joined the WSU Retirees Association Board of Directors in 2019, she took on the project. If you want to nominate someone to be interviewed for this project, please contact us at wsura@wright.edu.

Many of the interviews may be read or listened to online by following the links below. A few of the interviews have a video component.