After a long period of time, which resembles a chapter from Rumpelstiltskin, the Tempe History Society Board of Directors has decided to revive a project, which has laid dormant for many years. With the assistance of historic preservation expert and architect, Mark Vinson, and the participation of stakeholders from the City of Tempe, THS has initiated the preliminary steps to …

Tempe historian Shirley Blanton has been a champion for local history for many years.  Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Shirley has called Tempe home since 1948.  That’s the year that her parents – Maude and John Randolph – decided that it was time to move out west from Illinois. Shirley immediately embraced her new home, which she remembers as a “very …

Pedro “Pete” Obregon was a kind and generous man of Tempe who did a great deal to give back to his community over the course of his lifetime.  Born to a pioneer family in Tempe in 1898, Pete Obregon was one of ten children.  His Yaqui father, Serapio Obregon, made his way up to Tempe from Sonora, Mexico, and purchased …

Living Legend: John Aguilar, Humanitarian; City of Tempeand Historic Legend Henrietta Soza Aguilar (1934-2021) “All I wanted to do was help the poor, the ethnic and racial minorities, the disadvantaged in my town of Tempe. Mexican Americans like me: we knew the struggle, too. I wanted them to be better.”—John Aguilar.   John has never been afraid of hard work. …

Joaquin Bustoz, Jr.: ASU Mathematics professor; mentor to countless numbers of students of color; became a Senior Fulbright Lecturer at the Universidad Nacional de Columbia; a Visiting Professor of Mathematics at Universidad Coimbra in Portugal; and a Visiting Mathematician at the Mathematical Association of America; founder of ASU’s Joaquin Bustoz Math-Science Honors Program; honored by President Bill Clinton in 1996 …

by Dr. Christine Marin Professor Emeritus, Arizona State University; Tempe History Society Boardmember By the 1860s, Mexican families came north from Mexico to the Arizona Territory’s Salt River Valley, which was still a rough and unmanageable wilderness and subject to disputes between the Americans and the Native Americans. The Mexicans came to the farming region known today as Tempe, a …

by Lawn Giffiths There’s a rule: Don’t touch the items in a museum. However, Mary Ann Kwilosz has had her hands all over the Tempe History Museum for four decades. She has left her prints on a full range of the activities and programs. Her legacy is intact as she retires from membership on the board of directors of the …

Seven years ago today, December 12, 2014, I posted this narrative on my Timeline–on Facebook. I share it with you because you share respect and love of Tempe, its people, its history, especially, and because it’s a season of recollections and remembrances of loved ones and friends still with us, or now deceased. I wrote this about my friend, Paige …

If the question, “Who built Tempe?”, were asked the names Kemper and Michael Goodwin would be a worthy answer.    The late father and son architect team was prolific in designing buildings that stand prominently in Tempe, across the state, and even the Southwest.   Tempe City Hall, the iconic “upside-down pyramid,” is regarded as Michael’s crowning project (1970) – …