Club History

written by founding member Susan Patterson in 2013

In the beginning, there were nine of us — Jim and Nancy Murray, Ken and Marilyn Terwey, Beverly Stone, Theresa Thompson, Toni Schreiber, Greg Thomas and me, Janis Susan May (now Patterson). Some of us went to Egypt in the spring of 1992, and the trip just whetted our appetite for more, a fairly futile longing in a Dallas where Egyptologists were as scarce as glaciers. Resolving to change this, in May of 1992, we formed an Organizing Committee and met sporadically in the den of my mother Aletha's house where, after much discussion, we decided to become a chapter of ARCE, with Jim Murray as our first President, Marilyn Terwey as Membership Chair, and I, in a moment of weakness, taking over the Newsletter. In those long-ago days the Newsletter was a paper publication — the first few even produced on an old-fashioned typewriter! — and we would gather to hand-address them for mailing until I got a computer and generated printed labels before making a (mostly) midnight run to the post office. We had no budget at all, so the printing and mailing of those early Newsletters were funded more often than not by a whip-round of the Board. Our first of many Newsletters went out in January of 1993.

In the late autumn of 1992 the Organizing Committee approached Dr. Fred Wendorf of SMU, who — though slightly bemused at the enthusiastic gaggle of amateur Egyptologists invading his office — agreed to sponsor our group at SMU, where we have held our meetings ever since. In February, 1993 (twenty years ago! Good heavens!), our provisional chapter held its first meeting in Room 153 of Heroy Hall, not far from our current spacious meeting room in Fondren Hall. Our events were initially sporadic, depending on what speakers were available — with a startling number of 'movie nights' — but they soon settled into the pattern of regularly monthly meetings. For Dr. Mark Lehner, our first NT-ARCE Seminar speaker, we produced a beautiful and informative booklet (graced by a photograph from Carolyn Brown), the first and last we ever did, for even with donated printing and photographs it was too much of a drain on time and resources.

Co-presidents Sarah O'Brien and Roxanne Gagnon succeeded Jim Murray, followed by Clair Ossian (at nine years our longest serving officer), Rick Moran, and, now, Marsha McCoy. Board members from both the Old Guard and newer members have made NT-ARCE into a self-sustaining organization. After a nine-year reign (noun deliberately chosen) I retired from the Newsletter in 2001. I was newly married, after meeting my husband Hiram at an NT meeting, and my mother passed away shortly thereafter. It was time to let go and go on. The Newsletter passed to the co-editorship of Marilyn Terwey and Beverly Stone, then to Pam Thomas, under whose far-seeing aegis it went from paper to electronic, and then to Karlene Schoonover, who renamed the publication Menhedj. Ever proud of the Newsletter, from the beginning I fought to see it established as a respected scholarly journal, and today it continues to be archived in museums and universities all over the country.

Where once the Organizing Committee worried about maintaining a roster of 35 members (the minimum for ARCE chapters), NT is now one of the largest and most respected ARCE chapters, and an esteemed study group in its own right. In January of 2010, Clair Ossian spearheaded and Gayle Gibson led the first chapter tour of Egypt, and more are planned in the future. Over the years a veritable 'Who's Who' of Egyptology has spoken before our group and many of these renowned Egyptologists have chosen to become NT members. And friends.

I don't remember if the original Organizing Committee knew exactly what we wanted from a group, save for a dependable source of Egyptological knowledge. In both scope and reputation, however, NT-ARCE has far exceeded any modest aims we might have had, and I couldn't be happier, because that's how it should be. One cannot help wondering how NT-ARCE will look in another 20 years!