2019 John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in NPS Archeology

The John L. Cotter Award for Excellence in National Park Service Archeology is awarded annually to honor the long and distinguished career and pioneering contributions of Dr. John L. Cotter. The award was established as inspiration for student and professional archeologists to continue Dr. Cotter’s model of excellence. The award recognizes the archeological accomplishments of NPS staff or a partnership researcher within a unit or units of the National Park System.

The Cotter Award recognizes two categories. The Professional Achievement Category is awarded to individuals with demonstrated long-term service in the NPS. The Project Achievement Category is awarded to an individual or a group of people for a single fixed-year activity or a multi-year effort with sequential phases for inventory, excavation, testing, mitigation, planning, or collection analysis regarding submerged or terrestrial National Park Service resources.

The winners of the 2019 awards are:

Vergil Noble (Professional Achievement)

Vergil Noble's career at the Midwest Archeological Center (MWAC) has left an indelible mark on the region. Working in almost one-third of the Midwestern parks, Noble has left a legacy of reports, conference symposia and papers, and many publications. His assistance in developing and writing National Historic Landmark (NHL) nominations and management plans, and grant management led to establishment of numerous NHLs. His service with the Society of Professional Archaeologists, Register of Professional Archaeologists, and presidency of the Society for Historical Archaeology provided platforms for improving the methods and theories of archeological research.  

Andrew Wise (Project Excellence)

The Southeast Archeological Center Digital Curation Project completed the digitization of 900,000 files for over 500 archeological projects spanning many decades. The project migrated 1930s film and audio recordings and recent side-scan sonar and x-ray fluorescence results to a centralized digital database. This work provides efficient access for both research and park management tasks and ensures the long-term preservation of this information.