Welcome

History Department Honors Alumnus, Jeff Futch, at Spring Banquet

Jeff Futch earned his BA in History in 1990. He rose to become Director of the western branch of the State Archives in 2009. With nearly 20 years experience in local preservation, he has had a scarcely visible but utterly significant impact on WNC's cultural resources. He spent the previous 15 years as a Records Analyst for the western office of the NC Archives working with a minimal staff in a little hole-in-the wall office, advising community groups and government agencies in the western counties on records law and conservation. He promoted the presevation of local government records and facilitated the transfer of historically significant records to the State Archives in Raleigh. Now, as Director of an expanded state-of-the-art facility appropriate for large-scale records storage on the VA hospital grounds here in Asheville, he is working to get those resources back, spending years in tricky negotiations over the Black Mountain College Collection, for example, which is now housed there and attracting international scholars. He oversees a staff of 8 preservationists, archivists, and an archaeologist, turning the office into a cultural resource in itself, partly because of the beautiful restoration of the building (an old and decrepit nurses' dormitory). He coordinates his staff to enable current History majors to complete internships; the first group just finished this semester and collectively logged over 400 hours archiving and curating WNC's History!