by Dennis Dalman
For 32 years, Steve Penick’s mostly-undone “To Do List” has been growing steadily, and now he hopes to start working on that list to fulfill some of his long-time dreams, including writing a book.
Penick, the archivist at the Stearns (County) History Museum, recently resigned after more than three decades of work for the museum. He intends to pursue new ventures, other To-Do-List items.
On Valentine’s Day, the museum’s staff will host a send-off party for Penick.
“This museum has been a big part of my life,” he said. “There were good years and some challenging years. But it’s all been a good thing.”
Penick said he will miss the staff members, the volunteers, the patrons and the visitors who visit the museum to view exhibits to do historical research and/or to participate in special programs and presentations.
As an archivist, Penick worked mainly in the museum’s library, with long-time museum colleague John Decker and other staff and volunteers. Penick did historical research, organized information, helped put together museum artifacts and documents, collated materials for collections, prepared theme exhibits for public viewing, led tours of the museum by area school students and planned educational outreach programs. He also did a lot of detailed office work, wrote articles for the museum’s newsletters and for its periodical entitled “Crossings,” which is now a 28-page booklet published periodically throughout each year. That particular publication features vivid, interesting local historical articles written by up to 20 contributing writers, including Penick. He said the work of those contributing writers was outstanding and that he will miss the collaborative connections.
A more in-depth article of Penick’s career will be printed in the Feb. 17 edition of the Newsleaders.
