Awarded October 2, 2021
2020 and 2021 Distinguished Service Citation

 

Beth Flickinger Padon and Chris Padon have been a team since they married 50 years ago. They also earned the Distinguished Service Citation together in recognition of their work in public archaeology and compliance cultural resource management. Since creating their own company, Discovery Works, Inc., in 1998, the couple has assessed the historical and archaeological significance of hundreds of sites in southern California, and helped their clients comply with various environmental regulations.

Beth and Chris have worked for many years to bring archaeology to the public. They created the California Archaeological Site Stewardship Program (CASSP) in 1999, to train and support volunteer site stewards at historic and archaeological sites across the Golden State. In 2018, they created the nonprofit Partners for Archaeological Site Stewardship, which now administers CASSP. In 2021, their nonprofit received a grant from the California Fund of the National Trust of Historic Preservation to conduct a pilot volunteer training workshop to increase public accessibility.

They have received several awards for their site stewardship work. In 2002, they received the Governor’s Historic Preservation Award for their development of CASSP. In 2003 and again in 2009, the Society for California Archaeology recognized them for their site stewardship work with the Mark Harrington Awards. In 2014, The Archaeological Institute of America awarded them the Best Practices in Site Preservation Stewardship Award.

The Padons continue to run their business and nonprofit out of Long Beach, California, while remaining closely tied with the Beloit community. They volunteered at high school college nights to attract students to Beloit and helped support Beloit’s recent acquisition of the Frances Bristol Collection of Textiles for the Logan Museum of Anthropology. This year, they generously supported the college’s Sustainability Career Channel in honor of much admired Beloit professor, Dick Newsome. We thank them for their contributions to our college community and for their work to protect heritage resources and promote site stewardship.

The Beloit College Alumni Association is honored to recognize both Beth Flickinger Padon and Chris Padon with the 2020 and 2021 Distinguished Service Citation.