As appeared in The Rattle - Vol. 55 No. 2- Winter 1967

Alums in the News
Dr. S. K. Stevens, Penn State, ’26, was one of seven graduates of the University honored as a distinguished alumnus on June 25, 1966, as part of the Annual Alumni Institute and Class Reunion program. The Distinguished Alumni Awards were established at Penn State in 1951 “to recognize and salute the achievements of outstanding alumni…whose personal life, professional activities, and community service exemplify the objectives of The Pennsylvania State University. Since that time, 85 graduates have been so honored. Using his TK the service of historical scholarship and his considerable executive duties for the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Dr. Sylvester K. Stevens has both illustrated and preserved history of the Commonwealth’s past.TK role is summed up in two events. The fist was the publication of Pennsylvania: birthplace of a Nation, his onetime State history, written for the general public to read and enjoy. Second was the dedication last summer of the William Penn Memorial Museum and Archives building in Harrisburg. Since 1956, Dr. Stevens has been executive director of the Commission, which helped create and now administers the Museum. From this post, he has directed a vigorous, State-wide effort to preserve the remaining fragments of Pennsylvania’s history, together in the form of documents and records to reside in the New Museum and Archives Building, or actual property. Under cover of Operation Heritage, such Historical shrines as Pennsylvania Ephrata, and Cornwall have been restored. Dr. Stevens has furthered the cause of conservation by using cooperation on a local level and serving since 1937 as executive Secretary of the Pennsylvania Federation of Historical Societies, In the same year, he was also named State Historian, and among the accomplishments of his 19 years in the office, in the State’s historical program. Twenty years ago, Dr. Stevens took up his role as author, state history was the domain of the amateur. With his authoritative studies, he helped make it the province of the professional historian. His books above the Commonwealth include two-volume, Pennsylvania: The Keystone State; a three-volume work, Pennsylvania: Titan of Industry; Exploring Pennsylvania; and Pennsylvania at War, 1941-45. He has also written and edited numerous articles, pamphlets, and bulletins in an attempt to communicate the great pride he feels in his Pennsylvania heritage and to provide his readers with a background against which to understand the present. His scholarship has brought him three honorary doctorates, from Lebanon Valley College, Susquehanna University, and Moravian College. He has served as president of The Association of Historic Sites Administrators and as president and treasurer of the American Association for State and Local History. He is a founder and member of the editorial board of American Heritage magazine, a trustee of the Harrisburg Area College Center, and of the South Central Pennsylvania Educational Television Corporation. Penn State awarded Dr. Stevens both his bachelor’s and his master’s degrees, and he taught on the campus as an instructor and assistant professor of history from 1927 throughout 1937. His Pf. D. degree was awarded him by Columbia University in 1945. He resides in Camp Hill with his wife, the former Crescence Miller, Class of 1929.

Dr. Sylvester Stevens recognized as PSU's Distinguished Alumnus - The Rattle, Winter 1967