Ruth C. Bishop Family History Volunteer
Living Hall of Honor

Sharon Lass Field - 2007

Sharon Lass Field has been chosen as the 2007 inductee into the Ruth C. Bishop Volunteer Hall of Honor. The Cheyenne Genealogical and Historical Society of Cheyenne, Wyoming nominated Mrs. Field for this honor.

Sharon, born in 1941, was raised on a small ranch near Douglas, Converse County, Wyoming. She graduated from Douglas High School and went on to Business School in Denver, Colorado. This gave her, she says, the organizational skills needed to become successful with genealogy.

In 1960 Sharon met Sam Field, also a Wyoming native, and five months later they were married. Their son, Shadd was born in 1962 and daughter, Shelly followed in 1967. Both children are married, and Sharon and Sam relish their time with their three, and soon to be four, grandchildren.

Sharon’s ancestors came to Converse County when Wyoming was a Territory and she has the rare distinction of being a fifth generation Wyomingite in both her mother’s and father’s families. There was always a family story to be told, providing her with great resources for her family history.

It was not until 1964 when she moved to Cheyenne, Wyoming that she became interested in recording her Family History. A neighbor showed her some of her own genealogy and Sharon was off and running and never looked back.

Sharon joined the Cheyenne Genealogical Society in 1968 and has worked tirelessly as a volunteer ever since. She has spent over 10,500 hours assisting others in genealogy and history research. Much of her personal time has been used in documenting and preserving historical records that would otherwise be lost.

From 1974 to 1976, she served as President of the Society. During this time, she established with the IRS the Non-Profit designation for the Society and succeeded in getting grants to purchase items for the Wyoming Genealogy Collection housed at the Laramie County Library in Cheyenne.

Since 1972, she has served as chairman of the acquisition committee. This committee purchases books for use in family history research that are then donated to the Laramie County Library Genealogy Section.

Working in the Library’s Genealogy Department every Wednesday for thirty-five years is another example of her service. Sharon takes her duties as a volunteer for the Society seriously. She is there to help others discover the resources to prove and record their ancestors lives.

Sharon has spent forty years working to promote genealogy and the preservation of records. This work has involved the preservation of Wyoming Cemetery Records and working with government officials to preserve those and other documents. She has also written several books on genealogy and historical work.

Her other achievements include instituting the Living History Cemetery Walk during Frontier Days to acquaint visitors with Cheyenne’s past by interviewing "ghosts" as they pass through the Lakeview Cemetery, writing The History of Cheyenne and Fort Fetterman’s Cemetery, and teaching genealogy courses through Laramie County Community College.

The Cheyenne Genealogical and Historical Society recognizes her service and honors Sharon’s service to it and for her continuing efforts for preservation of genealogical records and to the state of Wyoming.

Lolita Thayer Guthrie - 2006

Lolita Thayer Guthrie has been chosen as the 2006 inductee into the Ruth C. Bishop Volunteer Hall of Honor. Mrs. Guthrie was nominated for this honor by the Ohio Genealogical Society (OGS), of Mansfield.

Lolita, a Hoosier native, met her husband, Mearl Guthrie of Abilene, Kansas, while he served in the U.S. Army and attended specialized training at Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana early in World War II. On 21 June 2006, they celebrated their sixtieth wedding anniversary.

After a few years as an elementary school teacher, Lolita chose to be a stay-at-home Mom. During this time, she served in volunteer leadership roles for the First Presbyterian Church of Bowling Green, Maumee Valley Presbytery, the local Hospital Guild, as well as state and local history organizations.

Mearl is a Professor Emeritus of Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio and was recently recognized as one of 100 “Distinguished Alumni of the College of Education and Human Development of the University of Minnesota.” They have two children, Scott who works for Bowling Green University on the Computer Security Staff and Carla Hall, who resides in Dublin, Ohio. She is a Staff Consultant-Database Administrator for Verizon. Carla's daughter, Julie Spanner, is a Civil Engineer and lives in Walbridge, Ohio.

Lolita is one of the most active septuagenarians known by the Ohio Genealogical Society. Her interest in genealogical research and cemetery preservation has occupied most of her adult life. She volunteers thirty to forty hours of her time every week to the local Wood County OGS chapter. She originated many projects and remains the force behind these to encourage members and non-members of the society to become involved.

Lolita's involvement with the Ohio Genealogical Society began innocently enough when she started riding to Mansfield with a board member friend to do research on days of Board meetings in 1990. She soon accepted an appointment as OGS Cemetery Committee Chairperson. It took thirteen years, but under her leadership, the Cemetery Committee completely overhauled the information in two previous OGS cemetery books and in 2003 published Ohio Cemeteries: 1803-2003, with information on over 14,600 cemeteries and burial sites throughout the state. In 1993, she served her first term on the OGS Board of Trustees, continuing since that time. Having chosen to "retire" earlier this year, she promised to remain active on the OGS Cemetery Committee.

Currently Lolita is President of the Wood County OGS Chapter and Projects Coordinator, working closely with the newsletter editor and she proofreads every edition. Among her contributions to the Guthrie family history are: The First Annual Guthrie Scrapbook, 1988, Highlighting Allied Families: Cline, Kitterman and Guthrie Genealogy, with Index from the Clan Guthrie News, a publication she produced for twenty-three years.

Dola S. Tylor - 2005

Dola S. Tylor, nominated by the Shenandoah Valley Genealogical Society in Winchester, Virginia, was chosen by the committee to be inducted into the Ruth C. Bishop Volunteer Hall of Honor in 2005. Due to health concerns she was presented the award at a reception held in her honor at the society on August 3, 2005.

Dola was born in 1915 in Swiss Colony, Gruetli, Grundy County, Tennessee. A music teacher named her by combining the first two notes of the musical scale to create her name. Her parents, Christian Peter and Ethel (Tat) Schild added her middle name, Virginia. Her brother, Roy Christian, was born nine years later. She attended the one room schoolhouse there and then went to Grundy County High School. She attended college at the University of Tennessee for two years, returning twenty years later to graduate, receiving a degree in Accounting in 1958.

At the beginning of World War II she was a map draftsman with the Lone Star Gas Company, in Dallas Texas. In 1944 she transferred to TVA, Chattanooga, to take an engineering job. After the war, in 1946, she became a civilian with the US Corps of Engineers on Okinawa and remained there for most of the next 31 years. In 1977, she retired from the U.S. Army Communications Command–Okinawa. Her husband Richard then transferred to the new Corp of Engineers office in Winchester, Virginia.

Their new home was not far from the Handley Regional Library and she began working in the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives. She became the recruiter for volunteers, made schedules and kept time records. In discovering that the city of Winchester kept its records separate from those of Frederick County, she sought permission and copied the earliest city records of births, deaths, marriages and wills and put the six published manuscripts in the library archives. Another contribution is the surname file card index of every family history book in the Archives. As of March 2005, she has indexed 412 books.

Dola has been a dedicated volunteer for over 25 years and at the age of 90 she continues to serve. For many years her primary job was to meet and assist researchers, which she always enjoyed. To make researching easier she indexed books, census records, and manuscripts. With her accounting abilities she does the quarterly and year-end finance reports for the Archives. Since 1997, she has been a continuing contributor to The Pathfinder, the quarterly magazine of the Grundy County Historical Society in Tennessee.

In gratitude for her dedication and long-time commitment she was awarded a lifetime honorary membership to the Shenandoah Valley Genealogical Society. Recently the Stewart Bell Jr. Archives and Handley Regional Library recognized her, with an award created in her honor, the Dola Tylor Award, which is given to other dedicated volunteers. They are very appreciative of Dola and her many contributions.

Doris Leachman Wastradowski - 2004

Doris Wastradowski, nominated by the Clark County Genealogical Society of Vancouver, Washington, was chosen by the committee to be inducted into the Ruth C. Bishop Volunteer Hall of Honor in 2004. Doris was born in Idaho 84 years ago, but she has lived in Clark County for 76 years. She graduated from Vancouver High School and attended business college. Her life has been full and rewarding. She married Carl Wastradowski in 1940; had six children - including a pair of twin girls; and worked at the Vancouver Veteran's Hospital until retirement in 1980. She has 10 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren. Her husband, Carl, passed away in 1990.

In 1980, when she retired from the Veteran's Hospital, she and her husband started working with and for the Clark County Genealogical Society. She has served in most of the elected offices of the society, including president and vice president. Doris has always been there to help new members as librarian and mentor. She has served as library director, scheduler, and member of the library governance committee. The library has steadily grown and moved twice during this time; but continued smooth operation was her hallmark.

For ten years, Doris served as liaison for the Clark County Genealogical Society "mature learning" partnership with Clark Community College. In addition to working with college staff and CCGS instructors, she coordinated the development of the lesson plans and taught some of the classes.

Another of her accomplishments is in the area of member programs. She has served as chairperson for society meeting programs, member trips to Salt Lake City, education and publicity committees, and newsletter editor.

Doris has also participated to a lesser degree in myriad other activities, which include record preservation and fund raising - both very important to a medium size genealogical society. She has served more than 21,600 hours of service to Clark County Genealogical Society. While serving all of these hours, she found time to do her own family research and publish three family history books.

Lorena Joyce Marshall Nicoll - 2003

Lorena Joyce Marshall Nicoll, nominated by the Montgomery Genealogical Society of Montgomery, Alabama, was chosen by the committee to be inducted into the Ruth C. Bishop Volunteer Hall of Honor in 2003.

Joyce is 79 years young - going stronger than ever. By her own admission she is working harder now than she ever did in her "working" life. She was born in Montgomery, Alabama, a fourth generation great-granddaughter of Abner McGehee, one of the founders of Montgomery.

She graduated Cum Laude with a BS degree from Troy State University in 1978. Joyce married Wilbur Webster Nicoll in 1942. They have one son and two grandsons. Joyce retired from the Air Force Civil Service as a Systems Analyst in April 1994, after an award winning, 38 year career.

In the words of Annie Crenshaw, current trustee of the Montgomery Genealogical Society:

"Joyce Nicoll joined MGS in 1996. At this time MGS was not progressing and was struggling to publish a quarterly with limited funds. The haphazard membership accounting system showed fewer than 60 paying members and no money for publications. In addition to funding problems, the organization was not performing under specific guidelines - including those provided by the Federation of Genealogical Societies - and so Joyce immediately began plans to effect a change.

"In direct response to Joyce's tremendous volunteer efforts, in 2003 the society is a thriving organization with a full compliment of officers and over 270 members throughout the United States. The society has more than adequate funds available to publish quarterlies and pay administrative costs. There have been eight books published to date, many solely through Joyce's efforts and at her own expense with reimbursement from the society following publication.

"With the generous and energetic efforts of Joyce Nicoll, the Montgomery Genealogical Society has become a stable, recognized part of the local genealogical/preservation environment. The society offers its members a learning place for newcomers to family history, a continuing resource for advanced genealogical researchers, and a voice in the community. Joyce has truly given the 'time of her life' as a volunteer to the society."