Awarded September 14, 2024
2024 Joe Kobylka’51 Alumni Award

It is impossible to overstate Fred Burwell’s contributions to Beloit as College Archivist during a nearly 40-year tenure. Fred has brought passion and a service orientation to the Archives. As a talented storyteller, he has protected the college’s rich history while also bringing it to life for countless alumni, students, faculty, and the wider world.

Beloit found Fred in what seems like a striking case of serendipity, first when he enrolled as a transfer student, then when he was a student worker who by chance discovered Beloit’s Archives hidden behind a locked gate on Morse Library’s top floor. His innate curiosity for that place and, as he puts it, “the stuff of history” led him in 1984 to seek out his predecessor, semi-retired archivist and legendary history professor Robert H. Irrmann, who prepared Fred to become Beloit’s third archivist in 1986. He has been the go-to person for college history ever since.

Throughout his tenure, Fred has far exceeded the requirements of his job. Whether developing and writing Fridays with Fred — his beloved historical vignettes — leading campus history walks, teaching students with primary sources, curating a diary collection, or relentlessly searching for solutions to historical puzzles, Fred has made Beloit’s past accessible, relevant, and nearly irresistible to anyone who comes into his orbit.

With trademark patience, good humor, and genuine curiosity, Fred has raised the reputation and visibility of the Archives and amplified its role in the life of the college. He began welcoming classes into the Archives shortly after assuming his new role in the 1980s. At the time, utilizing the Archives for teaching was new, and it exposed students to the thrill of working with primary sources, ultimately igniting in many a lifelong love of history and of Beloit. In all his efforts, Fred has worked to make the Archives useful, active, and vital to the institution. This has not gone unnoticed by alumni, who refer to Fred as “a treasure” and “someone who keeps them all connected.” Many say that they can’t imagine Beloit without Fred.

For his extraordinary role in preserving and sharing the stories of Beloit College, for nurturing a love of history in the next generation of Beloiters, and especially for his dedicated service to his fellow alumni, we are delighted to honor Fred Burwell with the Joe Kobylka’51 Alumni Award.