Humboldt County Historical Society

board elections

The HCHS Nominating Committee respectfully proposes the following slate of candidates. Members vote at the Clarke Museum on 11/2/2024.

President: Jim Garrison (incumbent) Vice-President: Mark Castro (incumbent) Treasurer: Jack Irvine (incumbent) Secretary: Alyssa Ellis

Alyssa Ellis

Alyssa Ellis is a forensic investigative genetic genealogist specializing in unidentified remains and crime scene DNA through the collaboration of various law enforcement agencies working with Cold Case Coalition and Intermountain Forensics. She is a volunteer genetic genealogist on the 1921 Tulsa Graves Project working with multiple organizations to identify victims of the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma race massacre. She has over two decades of genealogy research experience specializing in American records and graduated Magna Cum Laude from Oregon State University with a BA in history and a BA in political science. Alyssa has lived in Humboldt County since 2009 and has volunteered and interned at HCHS since 2018 where she used her time to digitize the collection, including the Milota Biographical Files, and hopes to digitize more of the collection in the future.

Robert Cliver

Robert Cliver is a lifelong student of history and a Professor of History at Cal Poly Humboldt. His field of specialization is modern China and Russia, but he has interests in ancient and world history, modern East Asia, and Asian-American history. He earned his PhD in history from Harvard University in 2007, and since then has lived in Humboldt County working at the university. He has published one book-length monograph and several articles and book chapters with prestigious journals and academic presses. He has also held three different jobs with the title of editor - at the University of Hawaii Press, the ABC Dictionary Project, and as manager of the translations department at SinoFile in Beijing. He is fluent in Chinese, less so in Russian and Latin. In recent years he has developed some expertise in the history of Chinese people in California, including Humboldt County, and has strong personal connections to many history-related organizations in the area such as the Clarke Museum, the Eureka Chinatown Project, and the Timber Heritage Association.

Jackie Farrington

 Greetings, my name is Jackie Farrington and I'm a local professional archaeologist. I care deeply about rural cultural resources and their many forms, and strongly believe good cultural work is the direct result of comprehensive and collaborative efforts. I've been living and working in Humboldt County over the past 12 years, and have learned from and contributed to other historical groups as well as worked with many tribal partners. I have volunteered in various forms for the Society for California Archaeology over the past 9 years, and currently act as the committee chair for our online engagement and member representation. On the local level, I have worked/volunteered for the Museum of Natural History; HSU Library Collections, The HSU Cultural Resources Facility, and the City of Eureka. I would be thrilled to be able to contribute my background and abilities to the goals of the Humboldt County Historical Society, and to learn from members as we move forward into the future together. 

Paul Geck

I've lived in Humboldt County since 2000, having moved here from Kansas City with my wife.  I was hired by College of the Redwoods in 2001 as an instructor of history, and by Humboldt State University in 2006.  I still work at both the college and university.   I earned a History M.A. from University of Missouri ~ Kansas City in 1994 and a teaching credential from HSU in 2002.  I served as the Program Leader of the History Education Concentration at HSU from 2016 to 2022, and I was just recently elected to the University Senate.  I became familiar with Humboldt County Historical Society while working on my credential and getting involved in Humboldt County History Day from 2002 to the present.  From 2016 to 2022 I was HSU's History Day Coordinator and worked with local teachers and Humboldt County Office of Education to facilitate the annual History Day event at HSU.  It was my regular practice to send students to HCHS to do research for their History Day projects and send college students there to do research for their papers.  I am not an expert on Humboldt's history, but I have learned a fair share of it during my 24 years living here.  I believe that my experience with different educational institutions could make me a useful asset on the board and I can provide a history teaching perspective when necessary. 

Board Members at Large:

Sile Bauridel (incumbent)