The Open Stacks: Sterns a prominent and influential family
Jennifer Olguin
Although we all are living through challenging and trying times during the pandemic, the New Mexico State University Archives and Special Collections is still receiving collections to add to our archival holdings in order to capture history and ultimately make available to the public. Earlier this summer, Dennis Daily, the ASC department head, received the papers of the late Donald D. Stern. In this post, I will share information on the recently acquired papers as well as provide a glimpse of the Stern family.
Donald David Stern was born Aug. 9, 1925, to Eugene and Mabel Stern. The Stern family was an influential family in the Mesilla Valley they were Jewish merchants and farmers, and assisted in civic organizations around Las Cruces. Eugene and Mabel had six children and the papers housed at the ASC reflect the personal and military life of Donald. Donald was a 1943 graduate of Las Cruces Union High Sc
Editor s note: This is from The Open Stacks, a blog curated by the NMSU Library Archives and Special Collections. Blog posts from The Open Stacks will be printed in the Sun-News monthly. Visit https://openstacks.nmsu.edu/ to learn more about the history of the Mesilla Valley.
The New Mexico State University Archives and Special Collections (ASC) has many interesting historical collections, but the Loretto Academy holding is a gem that catches people’s attention whenever we have a public display of our archival holdings.
A woman attending the 2019 Border Regional Archives Group Border Archives Bazaar, held at the New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum, was in awe that we had the Loretto Academy collection. She had a family member who had attended the once-thriving Catholic school in downtown Las Cruces.