Librarian Steve Fesenmaier was named one of forty 2006 West Virginia History
Heroes from around the state on February 15, 2006 at the WV Cultural
Center. He is the first staff member of the West Virginia Library
Commission to be so honored and only the third librarian – along with
deceased Jackson County Public Library director Ed Rauh and retired
Hardy County Public Library director Marjorie Zirk. This is the tenth
year that this award has been given to people at the grassroots level
for their work promoting and protecting West Virginia’s history.
Librarian Steve Fesenmaier was named one of forty 2006 West Virginia History
Heroes from around the state on February 15, 2006 at the WV Cultural
Center. He is the first staff member of the West Virginia Library
Commission to be so honored and only the third librarian – along with
deceased Jackson County Public Library director Ed Rauh and retired
Hardy County Public Library director Marjorie Zirk. This is the tenth
year that this award has been given to people at the grassroots level
for their work promoting and protecting West Virginia’s history.He was nominated by a member of the South Charleston Museum board and
its director for his work during the last several years programming West
Virginia films at the museum. For more than a year, on a twice-monthly
basis, he has been programming new and once lost films by West Virginia
filmmakers including Caroline Gentry, who was recently discovered by him
and others to have made an early feature film in West Virginia called
“The Romance of Coal.”(1921). Ms. Gentry created the world’s first
compilation biographical film about President Theodore Roosevelt after a
career in Hollywood. Mr. Fesenmaier projected parts of this biography at
the South Charleston Museum in fall 2004 along with WV’s first
documentary – “Nitro†(1921) and other rare films made about the state,
some of which were included in the landmark DVD set, “Treasurers of
American Film Archives.â€
Mr. Fesenmaier was also honored for his 26 years in West Virginia,
promoting WV filmmakers and films about WV, which included his 21 years
as director of the Film Services Division of the West Virginia Library
Commission and his co-founding of the WV Filmmakers Guild and the WV
Filmmakers Film Festival. He also created the large website devoted to
films about West Virginia and Appalachia at AppLit –
http://www.ferrum.edu/AppLit/Bibs/WVFilmIndex.htm.
Mr. Fesenmaier is honored to be included in the group of WV History
Heroes – and hopes to nominate many of his friends including the
outstanding WV filmmakers who have made landmark films about the state.
For more information on this honor, visit the WV Archives website at –
http://www.wvculture.org/history/histhero.html.
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