Honoring the past and present

Fri, Nov 6, 2009    to del.icio.us

The past was honored and new history was made Thursday night during the 28th annual Tri-Cities Historical Museum Heritage Dinner in downtown Grand Haven.

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One of these history-making events was the awarding of the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award to 89-year-old Clarence "Tad" Poel.

"It is the first one that they have done, so it is nice," Poel said Thursday night after the dinner.

Having lived in Grand Haven his whole life, Poel said he's seen plenty of change in the community, ranging from the end of the commercial fishing industry and even the arrival of the USCG Cutter Escanaba.

"It has been a pleasure to be a part of Grand Haven," said Poel, who to this day still writes columns for the Grand Haven Tribune.

He began his career after returning from World War II and has since — to his estimates — written 6,000 to 7,000 columns.

"In my book, everyone has a story so that makes it easy to report," Poel said, adding he enjoys what he does and thought it was a lot of fun.

Poel wasn't the only honoree at Thursday night's festivities, as the museum handed out honored three honors for the Historian of the Year award.

The first honoree was Leo C. Lillie, who was born in 1889 and wrote the book "Historic Grand Haven and Ottawa County."

According to Denny Swartout, the museum's dirctor, this has been the "definitive document on early history of our community" for the past 78 years.

"Our honoree was a man of tremendous energy and enthusiasm that was reflected in the success of the many civic projects that he was a part of," Swartout said.

Loutit District Library was also honored with a Historian of the Year award for their many years of public service and the educational value they have provided the community.

This includes the first community library at 15 N. Third St. to the newly expanded Loutit District Library, which was dedicated July 1.

"It has been so tremendous to have the support of the community in this building project," Loutit District Library Director Sandra Knes said.

According to Knes, one of the jewels of the local library is its history department.

A chronicler of local history was also honored with the third Historian of the Year award — the Grand Haven Tribune.

"Since its inception, the Grand Haven Tribune has chronicled the life and death of our citizens, as well as the varied and many events and activities that have been a part of our community," Swartout said.

Established in 1892 by Horrace Nichols, the newspaper publishs Monday through Saturday to this day.

In addition to honoring those who have had an impact on the history of the Grand Haven community, museum officials took the time to recognize the collaboration and cooperation that had taken place during the year.

"This past year illustrates the most recent examples of these qualities here in Grand Haven," Swartout said, citing examples such as working to develop activities for the city's 175th anniversary, working on the 175th anniversary calendar for 2009 and the visit of the American Wind Symphony.

Additionally, Museum Board of Directors President John Naser said there were many strong accomplishments at the museum in what is their own 50th anniversary.

This includes new software to catalog the nearly 48,000 objects in the museum's collection, the installation of historical markers along the Grand Haven waterfront and even a professional assessment of the museum and its collections.

"All-in-all, it has been an excellent year for the Tri-Cities Historical Museum," Naser said.