[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 195 (Thursday, November 30, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1624]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  IN APPRECIATION OF IDAHO HUMANITIES COUNCIL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR RICK 
                                ARDINGER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. MICHAEL K. SIMPSON

                                of idaho

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 30, 2017

  Mr. SIMPSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service of 
Rick Ardinger, the executive director of the Idaho Humanities Council. 
I wish to congratulate him on his retirement after 26 years of service 
leading the state's efforts to promote and inspire the study of 
history, literature, philosophy, jurisprudence, cultural anthropology, 
comparative religion, art history and criticism, music history and 
other interpretive disciplines.
  A Massachusetts native, Rick moved to Idaho to pursue a Master of 
Fine Arts degree in creative writing and quickly acclimated to the 
local writing scene. In 1976, Rick and his wife Rosalind started 
producing a literary publication, The Limberlost Review. The 
publication quickly turned into the Limberlost Press, an independent 
publishing company that has produced books by Pulitzer Prize winning 
novelist John Updike and Idaho native Sherman Alexie, among others.
  Rick joined the Idaho Humanities Council staff in 1991, and became 
executive director in 1996. During his tenure, the IHC broadened its 
outreach not only by awarding grants for humanities projects and 
programs throughout the state, but also by sponsoring a number of 
flagship council-conducted initiatives to bring attention to the 
importance of lifelong learning in the humanities.
  Under Rick's leadership, the Council also launched a successful $1 
million fundraising campaign to establish an Endowment for Humanities 
Education with the Idaho Community Foundation, providing a sustainable 
source of support for the Council's annual, weeklong, residential 
summer institutes and workshops in the humanities for K-12 teachers. In 
1997, the Council held its first annual Distinguished Humanities 
Lecture and Dinner in Boise, an event which has brought to Boise a long 
list of nationally prominent novelists, journalists, and historians to 
speak before hundreds of supporters every fall.
  In addition to the annual event in Boise, the Council also hosts 
Distinguished Humanities Lectures in Twin Falls, Idaho Falls, and Coeur 
d'Alene. The Council also sponsors statewide reading and conversations 
programs, supports the work of the City Clubs of Idaho Falls and Boise, 
brings annual tours of Smithsonian traveling exhibitions to the state, 
hosts an ongoing Humanities Speakers Bureau, and funds the statewide 
annual ``Let's Talk About It'' program in partnership with the Idaho 
Commission for Libraries. For several years, the Council has 
underwritten Idaho Public Television programming, and has produced a 
number of publications that have explored Idaho history and recently an 
anthology of essays about the meaning of wilderness in Idaho.
  As a supporter of local and national arts and humanities programs, I 
consider Rick a friend and an advocate for sharing Idaho's cultural 
significance with the world. It's hard to imagine the Idaho Humanities 
Council without Rick, but I know he leaves the organization in a good 
place. For his enduring service to our great state, I thank and 
congratulate him.

                          ____________________