In our lives we don’t often get the chance to experience the great historical events such as the Civil War, the start of the Women’s Labor Movement or even get the privilege of experiencing some of the greatest sports legends of all time, but one man has experienced all of these and more.

How could this be possible? Archives, it’s all about the archives.

After his 31-year-tenure with the Center for Archival Collections, Director Paul Yon retired this past Monday, but not without seeing some of the most interesting events in Northwest Ohio through the world of microfilm, dulled paper pulp and gobs of ink.

Yon got into the business a little differently than most. He graduated from Defiance College in 1969 and wanted to get a job teaching. The only problem was there were no teaching jobs available to him.

“I saw this advertisement for this job at the State Historical Society,” Yon said. “It was a position working with another colleague to develop a public records manual for the preservation of local public records. I got the job surprisingly, and spent 21 months there by chance.”

After his stint at the Ohio Historical Society, Yon felt it was time to move on, so he came to the University in 1971.

His first job was to professionally process, arrange and catalogue the records that had been retrieved for the previous three years.

“When I got here the center was just developing and evolving,” he said. “We had two staff people then, now we have 9 full-time people.”

During his stay here at the University Yon has acquired many rare and important documents on the history of Northwest Ohio, most of which he remembers fondly.

“As an archivist I am probably apolitical and they are all good, but I have my own prejudices,” Yon said, rocking back in his chair smiling. “The Civil War collections are one of my favorites, because of their historical content and how we have a lot of fun acquiring them.”

The William J. Sullivan collections are the largest of the Civil War documents that are housed in the files of the archives. Yon received the documents in a wartime desk that is still upstairs in the archives.

Over 3,000 pieces exist within these collections and with the help of three graduate students, the documents were processed in less than a semester.

Yon attributes this collection as the “catapult” in being able to acquire more Civil War documents.

“I had the greatest job in the world,” Yon said. “Reason one is working with the public, having the opportunity to acquire materials, the job took me into meeting many people. The second one is working with students; Watching them use the materials and acting as a mentor to them has been the fun part of the job.” Yon loved his job and loved the archives but he says probably the biggest event in his life was the documentary on Doyt Perry titled “A Coach for Life.”

32 interviews were gathered of former players, coaches and faculty about Doyt Perry, former coach of the University’s football team.

After all the archives and interviews were collected, a premiere was held in Perry’s honor and over 400 people participated in raising money for the event.

Ann Bowers, assistant director at the center, believes that as a result of Yon’s dedication to his work, retirement will not slow him down.

“This was not an 8-5 job for him,” Bowers said. “He would spend numerous hours on the nights and weekends just giving himself to the projects he was involved in.”

Yon’s retirement plans include working for the county as a consultant, and having some fun. He plans on tailgating at the OU football game for homecoming, making breakfast for his wife every once and a while and traveling to North Dakota for a bit of a vacation.

Yon’s peers and colleagues recognized him with a dinner where he was subject to a roast last Friday.

“I was roasted and toasted, but everything was a lie,” he said with a smirk.

Besides being the subject of laughter, Yon was also awarded with a scholarship that will be in his name for students at the University.

The dinner was the passing of the torch to Assistant Director Ann Bowers, now Interim Director of the Center for Archival Collections.

But the torch didn’t have to travel very far; Bowers and Yon are a happily married couple.

“All good programs have to continue,” Bowers said. “What I want to do is to keep it going the way it has been.”

“Mr. Yon was a great person to work for,” she said. “He is honest, open, supportive, understanding and because he loves the job, he makes people more excited about it.”

Most of the documents in the archives are donated by outside parties; there isn’t much of a budget to buy a lot of the things.

“This was another area where he [Yon] demanded that we go out and speak to the public and try to retain certain documents,” Bowers said.

“The primary purpose of the archives is to serve the academic community,” Bowers said. “We want to give the opportunity to students to be able to work with primary sources, and support graduate research.”

Much like Indiana Jones when he searches for the Lost Arc or gets tangled up in the Last Crusade finding historical facts, the employees at the Center for Archival Collections work daily to gather and record information from the past to pass it on to all who are interested, without the help of Hollywood.