For the past three years Patricia Lyn Scott has served the Mormon History Association, first as Co-Executive Director and then as Executive Director, just the most visible period of her decades of dedicated service to the organization as a member of councils, boards, and committees. As Pat concludes her three-year service as Executive Editor, we, her current Board colleagues, express our heartfelt appreciation for Pat’s significant contribution to the advancement and perpetuation of the Association. Her term as Executive Director will end later in the summer on July 31, 2011, consistent with her original appointment, after directing the work for the imminent St. George Conference. Along with her notable work on the earlier Sacramento, Springfield, and Independence conferences, as well as the 2012 Calgary conference, her kindly manner and friendly cheer have helped MHA in equally important ways. We wish Pat well in her current and future scholarly projects, which are several.

The MHA Board of Directors has approved the appointment of Ronald O. Barney to succeed Pat Scott as Executive Director and a member of the Board for a three-year term beginning August 1, 2011. Ron is retiring in June 2011 after thirty-three years as a historian and archivist with the LDS Church History Department, most recently as Associate Editor of the Joseph Smith Papers. Marilyn S. Barney, Ron?s wife, who has served as MHA’s Business Manager since September 2010, will continue in that position through the summer of 2014, a period matching the term of Ron’s appointment. Both Barneys are long-standing members of MHA, and Ron served as a member of the Association’s Board during 2005-2008, and is currently on the nominating and finance committees.
Ron and Marilyn live in North Salt Lake, Utah, and have three children and eight grandchildren. Ron grew up in Ogden, graduating from Weber State and Utah State universities with history degrees. He worked on the Western Historical Quarterly and was an adjunct instructor of history at Weber State. His work for the LDS Church History Department has spanned 1977 to 2011. In addition to his archival and historical responsibilities and work on The Joseph Smith Papers, Ron served as Executive Producer of The Papers of Joseph Smith television series on KJZZ-TV and BYUTV. He has published three books, two of them award winners, as well as several articles for professional journals.

Before her work as MHA Business Manager, Marilyn was a fabric buyer for a national fabric store chain, and for the past twenty-five years operated her own window décor business in Utah’s Davis County. Along with ventures in catering, sewing, and the boutique business, she also served for a period as the volunteer coordinator for Utah State Social Services in northern Utah.