James Madison University - Index

James Madison University - Madison Magazine - Summer 2008 - Index

@
screening Program, teen pregnancy
prevention, the Mental
Health Coalition, the elder
alliance and the Harrisonburg
Community Health Center.
in March, longtime JMU
supporter Merck inc. presented
a $35,000 grant for the
Chronic Care Clinic, a new
clinical initiative in the JMU-
RMH Collaborative. nursing
professor sharon strang, who
wrote the successful grant for
the clinic, accepted the check
from Merck representatives,
Rhonda zingraff and diane
starkey.
“We are grateful to Merck
for supporting the newest
initiative in the JMU-RMH
Collaborative,” says Lovell.
“The collaborative has
brought together the best of
RMH, JMU and the community
to achieve more than
each of us could on our own,
using our respective knowledge,
skills and talents.”
‘Madison was
frustrated in his
own research
when he couldn’t
find any documents
on older
democracies.’
— Matt Fulgham (’89, ’91M)
12 Madison Magazine
[A Madison Legacy]
Preserving
Mr. Madison’s
message
Alumnus shares documents
from National Archives
By Colleen Dixon
Normally, speakers
don’t get up and
say, “a funny thing
happened to me on the way
here,” but Matt Fulgham
(’89, ’91M) could do just that
on March 11. He happened
to see his car, which he had
just finished loading with
presentation materials for the
trip from northern Virginia
to Harrisonburg, rolling
toward the fence in his yard.
“i saved it by throwing myself
in front of the car before it hit
the fence. it’s a Mini Cooper.
That’s another reason not to
buy an sUV,” Fulgham joked.
Fulgham is the assistant
director of the Center for
Legislative archives at the
national archives and
Records administration in
Washington, d.C. among
the treasures he brought to
Harrisonburg were facsimiles
of documents from the
archives. a chance meeting
Above: JMU alum
Matt Fulgham discusses
the vital
role of document
archiving and preservation.
Inset: JMU
history professor
Michael Galgano and
guest greet Fulgham.
led to his visit during Centennial
Celebration Week to
speak to students, professors
and community members
about James Madison and
the vital role of document
archiving and preservation.
James Madison Center director
Phil Bigler (’74, ’76M)
was visiting the national
archives when he ran into
former student Maureen
Ryan (’00). Ryan introduced
Bigler to the director of
the Center for Legislative
archives, who in turn introduced
him to Fulgham.
“The original title of the
talk was supposed to be ‘From
Madison’s messages to the
9/11 Commission e-mails,’”
said Fulgham. “a typo left
off the last ‘s’ in messages so
that it read ‘From Madison’s
message to the 9/11 Commission
e-mail.’” That started
him thinking about Madison’s
stance on preservation
and archiving. “Madison was
frustrated in his own research
when he couldn’t find any
documents on older democracies,”
Fulgham explained,
“and he was determined to
take meticulous notes during
debates at the Philadelphia
Constitutional Convention.”
Thus was born the idea of
document preservation. Madi-
son was a staunch advocate of
making information available
to the general public.
among the facsimiles of
older documents Fulgham
showed was a note from President
george Washington to
James Madison instructing
him to secure a place for
Washington to stay in Philadelphia
that was appropriate
to his office — protocol was
clearly already a concern for
the newly sworn in Washington.
Fulgham also showed
his favorite document, a
marked-up Bill of Rights.
“it’s amazing to see such an
important document like the
Bill of Rights with additions
and corrections, just like a
regular piece of legislation,”
Fulgham said. M
fulgham photographs by diane elliott (’00)