ESSAY COLLECTION

The Pioneer Essay Contest was held annually from 1958 until 2012 and was open to anyone writing on subjects of Santa Clara County history. The contest was reintroduced in 2019, with each year adding more possibilities for entry.

Some of the best essays are published in our quarterly journal, The Trailblazer, and all winning essays are maintained on file in the Mary Lou Lyon Research Library, and in the California Room of the Martin Luther King/San Jose State Library.

Soon we will have all past essay contest entries and winners available online – below you can find our most recent entries from the 2020-21 contest!

First Prize: Kathryn a Collins Philp “The Boiler Explosion at the J.C. Penny Company Building: San Jose, California, 1963”

2012

FIRST PLACE: Michael A. Shea MD
Nineteenth Century Medicine in the Santa Clara Valley

Russ Robinson
The McKee Family Letters

Lynn Rogers
LIGHTING A SPARK
Santa Clara Valley Autism Pioneers in the 1980s and 1990s

2010

FIRST PLACE: Sandra Lathrop Mueller
PIONEERING A PLACE FOR ECOLOGY

SECOND PLACE: Stephen Scordelis
SELLING A NAME: PAUL MASSON, CHAMPAGNE KING OF CALIFORNIA

THIRD PLACE: Mrs. Rosalinda G. Oneto
A.P. GIANNINI: SAN JOSE AND ALVISO YEARS AND THE ONETO FAMILY

Honorable Mentions

Lan-Uyen Trang Stephanie Nguyen
LEARNING SKILLS TO LAST A LIFE TIME AND TRADITIONS TO LAST FOREVER
Kimberlee Manzo
LEGACY OF PRUNES: A TRIBUTE TO THE ORSETTI FAMILY
Rebecca Leahy
STANFORD UNIVERSITY: ITS HISTORY, LEGACY AND INFLUENCE

2008

FIRST PLACE: Elizabeth Barratt

2011

FIRST PLACE: Elizabeth Ahrens-Kley
Dr. Ben Cory
Pioneer and First Medical Physician of San Jose, California

SECOND PLACE: Gage Mckinney
Santa Clara Valley Troubadour
A Life & Selected Poems of Thomas Clarence Urmy (read additional poems)

THIRD PLACE: Kathleen Kozacek
WHERE THE GIRLS ARE
Castilleja: A College Preparatory School for Girls in Santa Clara County Castilleja

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Grace Andriola Purpura
A WOMAN’S PLACE, A Personal Journey in the Changing Santa Clara Valley
Joanna Herz
If Walls Can Talk
Susan Sargent
Presidential Visits Then and Now
Ruth McCaffrey
The Indelible Stamp
Elizabeth Barratt
The F.R.F.G. Women’s Study Club

2009

FIRST PLACE: John Figueira Jr.
Portuguese Museum Plaza Design and Construction Project

2005

FIRST PLACE: Kathryn Collins Philp
The President, Politics, and the Police

SECOND PLACE: Elizabeth Barratt
The Pioneer James Ingham Family

THIRD PLACE: Mary Miller Chiao
Sarah Brown