october 25, 2017

“When the past calls let it go straight to voicemail, because it has nothing new to say.” ~ Unknown

Meet Faith Harders. Faith is a Librarian in the Design Library. About a year ago she discovered that Don Galloway was a graduate of UK’s Theater program and a native of Brooksville, KY. If you don’t know his name, you might recognize his face (those of a certain age won’t recognize either). Galloway is best known as Sgt. Ed Brown on Ironside. He went on to do two Perry Mason movies with Ironside star Raymond Burr. He also had roles on TV, in particular General Hospital as Buzz Stryker, and he played husband to JoBeth Williams’ character in the hit movie The Big Chill, one of my all-time favorites. 

Faith was so excited by the Galloway discovery that she wanted to pursue an oral history project about him. Galloway died in 2009 at the age of 71, but there were still plenty of fellow actors and family members to talk to. She deposited 14 interviews with us a couple of months ago. She then petitioned the university to erect a flag in his honor. These flags are common around campus except they usually depict successful businessmen, engineers, or doctors. There are very few commemorating arts graduates. In fact, this is the only one I know of. Yesterday, we made the Don Galloway Oral History Project interviews accessible online. I sent Faith an email saying as much, and I offered congratulations on the flag. It turned out that she didn’t know her petition for the flag had been successful, and this morning I received an enthusiastic, “I’m going to look at it right now,” email. I grabbed my camera in hopes of catching her at the flag, and sure enough, I did. Faith is a perfect example of what can happen when you have a great idea and follow it through. I’m so proud of her, and I’m really pleased to see the arts getting some UK love.

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