Dedication

In Honor of Bruce Fraser

Leading the Connecticut Humanities Council from 1982 until his passing in 2010

ConnecticutHistory.org, a program of Connecticut Humanities, is dedicated to Dr. Bruce Fraser, who saw the Internet as a powerful means to connect the story of Connecticut to its residents, especially teachers and school children. He launched the project in 2008 with a Digital Startup Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities and later secured major funding from the US Department of Education.

Dr. Bruce Fraser

Official Dedication

The site was officially dedicated in Dr. Fraser’s honor at a ceremony in 2010, at which he received the following recognition:

Whereas Bruce Fraser has shown extraordinary leadership and vision in conceiving and creating ConnecticutHistory.org, and

Whereas ConnecticutHistory.org will greatly expand the public impact of Connecticut for the next generation and will benefit hundreds of thousands of Connecticut residents and school children statewide, and

Whereas ConnecticutHistory.org is the first major scholarly revision of Connecticut History in 50 years, and

Whereas ConnecticutHistory.org will incorporate thousands of primary source materials from historical collections throughout the state,

Now Therefore Connecticut Humanities dedicates ConnecticutHistory.org

in honor of Bruce Fraser

About Dr. Fraser

Dr. Fraser led the Connecticut Humanities Council (today known as Connecticut Humanities) from 1982 until his passing in 2010, applying his intellect, energy, and humor to transforming it from a small organization with a budget of $350,000 to a statewide presence that annually supports more than $2 million in cultural programming. In 1995, he secured one of the nation’s first state appropriations by a humanities council targeted to the heritage community. With it, the organization established the Cultural Heritage Development Fund which has awarded more than 1,000 grants totaling $13 million over the past decade. In 2003, Dr. Fraser worked with Connecticut’s community foundations to bring the nationally-syndicated Motheread/Fatheread program for parents with young children to the state’s urban centers. Under his direction, the organization’s book discussion programs for children and adults have appeared in every public library in the state and serve in afterschool programs in Hartford, New Haven, and New London.

Dr. Fraser’s career-long devotion to sharing Connecticut history with state residents is best exemplified by The Connecticut Experience, a 19-part history series for public television which received numerous awards, including four regional Emmys. Under his leadership, Connecticut Humanities received five Merit Awards for overall program excellence and five Exemplary Project awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities as well as four Schwartz Prizes as “best state council initiative in the nation” from the Federation of State Humanities Councils.