Dr. Monte Poen was hired by Northern Arizona University President, J. Lawrence Walkup in 1966 and became part of the Missouri Mafia (those graduates of the University of Missouri who were recruited by Dr. Walkup to teach at NAU). Dr. Poen became a professor in NAU’s history department and a Truman Scholar. As part of NAU’s centennial celebration in 1998, Dr. Poen- who by then was retired Regent’s Professor of History Emeritus- took on the momentous task of recording the life stories of prominent NAU administrators, faculty and benefactors. The recordings became part of a Centennial project hosted by NAU television services. The oral histories in their entirety were donated to Special Collections and Archives, Cline Library, as a way to preserve these invaluable interviews and provide online access for a world-wide audience.
From the guide to the Monte Poen Collection, 1995-2006, (Cline Library. Special Collections and Archives Department)
