Rita Napier

Rita Napier, long-time resident of Lawrence, Kansas, and pioneering scholar and teacher at the University of Kansas, died November 7, 2016, after a lengthy illness. She was born on July 27, 1940, in Sedalia, Missouri, the daughter of Delmar and Freta Napier. From her parents, she learned to stand up for herself and others and to love animals and gardening.

Rita's mother told her she could "do anything she was big enough to do," and she took that to heart. Rita was the first person in her family to get a college education. She worked her way through American University where she earned a PhD in American history in 1976.

Rita started her teaching career in 1962 in the Hoonah Indian Village High School in Hoonah, Alaska, a Tlingit village along the Inside Passage of S.E. Alaska. Rita lived with a Tlingit family, learned the tribal dances, participated in ceremonies, and immersed herself in Native culture. She was adopted into the clan, a rare honor for a non-Indian. Her Hoonah experience gave her a desire to help Native American people understand and preserve their history and language and the desire to explain Native American culture to non-Indians. That dual purpose informed much of her life's work, which began in 1968, when she returned to Alaska on a National Geographic Society research and photography expedition.

Rita moved to Lawrence in 1973 to teach at the University of Kansas. She remained at KU for the rest of her career, retiring in 2011 as professor emerita. As a history professor, she established the first program of Native American history courses, now the Indigenous Studies Program.

Rita brought out the very best work in her students. Her students praised her classes for the right reasons-because they were fascinated and challenged by her enthusiasm, her intellectual ability, and her scholarly insight. She mentored many students who have gone on to distinguished careers at academic institutions including the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian and the University of Rome.

Rita extended her teaching beyond the university to the community at large. As a lecturer and historical consultant, Rita served Kansans in all regions of our state. She gave many presentations for the Kansas Humanities Council, speaking on such topics as Native American women and community history. She believed that looking at historical problems and the process of social development within a community allowed its members to put current issues in a broader context.

Examples of Rita's public service include her work on the Governor's Task Force to Create a State-wide Curriculum for Kansas History, the Hall Center Committee on the Improvement of Teaching, the Board of Trustees of the Haskell Foundation, and the Governor's Board on Preservation of Unmarked Burial Sites.

The foundation of Rita's teaching and service was her scholarly research. She wrote many articles on the history of the west, Native American history, and Kansas history. She published three anthologies: History of the Peoples of Kansas; On Kansas Trails: Traveling with Explorers, Emigrants, and Entrepreneurs; and Kansas and the West: New Perspectives.

The common thread of her scholarly work was the focus on the lives of ordinary people rather than leaders. She was part of her generation's pioneering interest in "history from the bottom up."

Rita was honored for her work as an educator in 1979 as the Outstanding Woman Teacher at KU, in 1983 with the H. Bernard Fink Teaching Award, in 1998 with the Steeple's Faculty Award, and in 2004 with a Kemper Teaching Award. She was inducted into the KU Women's Hall of Fame in 1982. The Kansas Humanities Council recognized her work by naming her the Outstanding Humanist Scholar in 1991, and with an award for Outstanding Contribution to the Humanities in 1997. The American Association of State and Local History gave her its National Award of Merit in 2003.

Rita is survived by two sons, Michael and Andrew, by her sister, Carolyn Bussey (Phillip); her brother, Michael Napier (Judy); four nieces and a nephew; many friends and students; and her beloved dogs.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests memorial contributions to the Kansas Humanities Council or the Lawrence Humane Society. Online condolences can be sent to www.midwestcremationsociety.com.

The community is invited to join Rita's family to remember her on Monday, November 21, 2016, at the Cider Gallery, 810 Pennsylvania, Lawrence, KS, from 5 to 7 p.m.