The State Historical Society of Missouri announces the Gary R. Kremer Center for Missouri Studies Fellowships, honoring Dr. Kremer’s impactful legacy at SHSMO where—in his role as executive director for 21 years—he has served as a leader, educator, and advocate for collecting, preserving, publishing, and sharing the Show-Me State’s history.
“We are pleased to honor Gary Kremer’s extraordinary leadership,” said SHSMO Board President, Sen. Roy Blunt. “From securing funding for the Society’s new headquarters at the Center for Missouri Studies to expanding to six research centers around the state to making collections of photographs, maps, and manuscripts easily accessible through digitized materials, Kremer galvanized the growth of the State Historical Society of Missouri,” Blunt shared.
SMSMO offers two fellowships each year on rotating topics designed to promote scholarship in underexplored areas of Missouri history and culture. Each fellowship carries a stipend of $5,000 for a project that results in a scholarly essay considered for publication in the Missouri Historical Review, the only quarterly journal devoted to scholarship on Missouri’s history. Recipients are also invited to share their work through a public program at SHSMO.
As fellowship recipient Luke Ritter, Professor of History, St. Louis Community College-Forest Park, shared: “The fellowship from the Center for Missouri Studies enabled me to complete a project I would have never accomplished on my own. The ensuing publication of my paper in the Missouri Historical Review, titled "Mothers against the Bomb: The Baby Tooth Survey and the Nuclear Test Ban Movement in St. Louis, 1954–1969" (2018), opened new doors.
SHSMO invites supporters to join in honoring Gary’s legacy by donating to the fellowship fund: shsmo.org/donate/fellowships. Donations of any size will commemorate his longstanding commitment to SHSMO and to Missouri history, secure the Society’s ability to offer annual fellowships to a wide range of scholars, and help SHSMO carry out its educational mission for future generations.