Theatre Design & Technology - Summer 2003 - 59

HT: Yes, I rewrote the conference manual. I
continued to serve as President of the
Heart of America Section. Fortunately, we
had in the bylaws a two-term limit. So
when my second term was up I finally got
to not be the president anymore. But as a
result of the conference, I was elected to
the National Board of Directors. I served
as a Member-at-Large for one year. And then
I was elected Secretary for the Institute. I
served for the two terms that you are allowed. When my term as Secretary was up,
the then-current Vice President for Programs and Presentations had just been
elected President, which then left a vacancy
in mid-term in that office. I was appointed
by the board to fill that office for the remaining one year. Then a year later I was
elected for a full two-year term on my own.
Interviewer: Well, the Institute always seems
to find positions for those members, like
yourself, who have a knack for getting the
job done.
Henry and the rest of the stalwart
members of his conference committee had
survived the volcanic eruption in the Heart

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of America, but the conferences and the Institute would never be the same. The sharp
growth trend of the 1970s would continue
with only one slight hiccup throughout the
1980s. It wasn't many years before conferences would attract 2,000 attendees, and
little more than a decade before attendance
would top 3,000. Some would remark that
the Institute had grown out of its infancy
and adolescence, and was entering mature
adulthood. Now the challenge was no longer
survival, but to develop and adapt the professional business practices and procedures
that should be expected of a million-dollara-year corporation.
There was one additional byproduct of
the attendance explosion on the plains. A
large number of new Institute members attended a conference for the first time.
Among them were a remarkable number of
individuals who were to take leadership positions within the Institute in subsequent
years, including, among many others, the
current President of the Insiitute, the Vice
President for Membership and Development,
and the author of this article.
And as for Henry? Well, his leadership

contributions would continue for two decades and would include another experience 13 years later as Vice Chair of the
Wichita conference in 1993. For these and
all of his many contributions, Henry was
recognized in 1988 when he was inducted as
a Fellow of the Institute. ❖
THE LIVING HISTORY PROJECT is jointly
sponsored and funded as an all-commission
project by the Commissioner's Fund and the
commissions of the Institute. The objective is
to videotape interviews with those individuals
who have had significant involvement with the
history of the Institute from its founding to the
present. This process was initiated at the 1999
conference at Toronto. It is envisioned that
over the next few years some 75 to 100 individuals will be interviewed. The ongoing
project will then continue to record the
Institute's history as it unfolds.
The Living History Project is chaired by
Richard D. Stephens, who authored the above
article. He wishes to thank Sarah B. Faszholz
for assistance with transcription and editorial
suggestions, and the USITT office staff for research assistance.

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