The Association for Documentary Editing’s first Sharon Ritenour Stevens Prize has been awarded to Kristen Lee Griffin, an instructor in history at the University of West Georgia. Mrs. Griffin works at the intersection of military, women’s, and documentary history with a research focus on women’s admittance to the U.S. military academies in the 1970s. A former U.S. Army medic herself, Griffin has served in uniform and as a military spouse.

The $1500 prize rewards scholars and editors whose work aligns with interests of the person in whose honor it was established. Sharon Ritenour Stevens (1950-2013) was Associate Editor of the George C. Marshall Papers and served ADE in a number of roles, including that of Director of Publications, Secretary-Treasurer, and informal archivist. Over her long association with the ADE, she received the Distinguished Service Award in 1986, the Lyman H. Butterfield Award in 1989, and the Life Service Award in 2011. Sharon taught at our Editing Institute and mentored numerous junior editors in the profession. She also labored for years on a personal project, a biography of Lt. Col. Susanna P. Turner (1913-1998), a member of the first Officers Candidate School for the Women’s Army Corps (WACs) in 1942 and one of ten selected for the Command and General Staff School established under George C. Marshall’s aegis.

Griffin will use her award for research in the archives of the military academies with an ultimate goal of a doctoral dissertation on this topic. She also will present to the ADE on her work at the annual meeting in Dickinson, ND in June 2020.

To be awarded annually while funding lasts, the prize was established in 2019 from contributions by ADE members made since 2013. The prize also includes a year’s membership in ADE. It is managed by a committee of three: Carol DeBoer-Langworthy, Philander D. Chase, and Martha J. King. Selection protocols for next year’s round will be announced soon.