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Earlier this fall, Thomas Visser, ����̽̽ History Department professor and former long-time director of the Historic Preservation Program, was awarded by the National Council for Preservation Education. Named after the founder of the historic preservation program at Columbia University, the award honors educators who, throughout their careers, have demonstrated sustained excellence and leadership in the field.

This is a well-deserved recognition for Visser, whose teaching career has touched the lives of hundreds of students and spanned nearly four decades—and counting. During his tenure as director, he helped build a substantial endowment for the Historic Preservation Program that has provided students with a research lab, funding for research travel expenses, and more. “My greatest satisfaction has come from seeing how students have been able to build on their experiences and gain knowledge to advance their careers,” Visser says. “I love that moment when a student is searching for direction and suddenly sees a path for the future.”

Visser’s fascination with preserving history began early in life. “As long as I can remember, I’ve had an interest in things of meaning associated with the past—not so much veneration as a desire to learn more about who we are and where we’re going, based on evidence of where we’ve been and what we’ve done,” he says.

Throughout his career, Visser’s goal has been to teach students the indelible link between what a community has built and the strength of that community. “The public’s traditional image of historic preservation is people out there trying to save old buildings, and that’s part of it, but our students are also achieving an enormous amount of public service,” Visser says. That service includes working to help ensure federal, state, and local funds are used in ways that not only comply with regulations but are also sustainable and add things of value—like continuity and a deeper understanding of its identity—to the community. Visser has shown his dedication to public service in other ways, too, including serving as a Vermont Act 250 District Commissioner and chairing Burlington’s Historic Preservation Review Committee.

Visser’s time at ����̽̽ hasn’t all been spent in the classroom, either. For decades, he and his students have worked closely with the university to find ways to preserve and rehabilitate the campus’s many historic buildings. “It’s an extraordinary collection of historic resources that has served as an amazing lab for us over the years,” he says. He’s especially proud of the rehabilitation work that was done on Old Mill, a formerly dilapidated historic building that now houses academic departments and faculty offices and is seen as one of the university’s signature—and most picturesque—structures.

Visser holds a strong belief that understanding and respecting our history is key to moving forward. “Working in historic preservation, we have ongoing interest in discovering how we can learn from past and pass that along to students,” he says. “And when we bring those ideas into the classroom, we can move beyond questions of how to do stuff and focus on tackling the challenges of future.”