Thompson Gets Barry M. Goldwater Award from Arizona Historical Society

Dean of Texas A&M International University's College of Arts and Humanities Dr. Jerry Thompson has received the prestigious Barry M. Goldwater Award from the Arizona Historical Society at its recent 41st Annual Convention.

Meeting in Yuma, Arizona April 27-29, the group bestowed Dr. Thompson the honor for his paper "Capt. Samuel Peter Heintzelman and the Founding of Fort Yuma,1850-1854." In naming him the Goldwater Award recipient, the group judged Thompson's paper the best of 43 presented.

It will be published in the winter issue of the Journal of Arizona History as " 'Near 106 Yesterday. It has been a Cool Summer': Samuel P. Heintzelman Views Yuma Crossing and Arizona Territory."

Thompson has been part of the A&M International faculty since 1987, and holds his doctorate in History from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Penn. His MA in History was received from the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, while his BA in History was earned at Western New Mexico State University in Silver City, N.M.

Earlier this year he was selected vice president of the Texas State Historical Association (TSHA). He will assume the TSHA presidency in March 2001.

His most recent publication is A Wild and Vivid Land: An Illustrated History of the South Texas Border. He is at work on two new books, Texas: A History of Five Centuries with Felix D. Almaraz Jr. And Lionel Paranaude; and To Defend the Mexican Name in Texas; A Biography of Juan Nepomuceno Cortina.

His Texas and New Mexico on the Eve of the Civil War will be published by the University of New Mexico Press in March 2001 and his seminal Vaqueros in Blue and Gray,first published in 1976 has just been released in its second edition from Austin's State House Press.

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