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M. Warner, former Archivist of the United States, died 24 April 2007 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He was one of the giants of the archival profession. Trained as an academic historian, he found his way to archives at the Michigan Historical Collections at the University of Michigan where he held a variety of positions including director from 1966 to 1980. His distinguished career focused on the administration of educational and cultural institutions, each transformed by his leadership. From 1980 to 1985, he served as the sixth Archivist of the United States. In the early years of the presidency of Ronald Reagan in Washington, during an intense campaign on the part of the administration to reduce the size and influence of government, Dr. Warner carefully led a successful effort to establish the National Archives as an agency independent of a decades-old reporting relationship to the General Services Administration. This was his greatest professional achievement. The National Archives and Records Administration was the most visible of a very few independent government agencies created during the Reagan presidency. At the time of Dr. Warner's death, the New York Times and the Washington Post, among other newspapers, published obituaries that reflected on the details of his professional career. Rather than simply repeat much of what has been written, it seemed appropriate that an article here in the journal of record of the archival profession might reflect more broadly on the meaning of his life as an archivist. Though many who read this article may not have had the pleasure and privilege |
