Battlefield Preservation Hall of Fame
The Edwin C. Bearss Lifetime Achievement Award honors those who have been leaders in our nation's battlefield preservation movement, contributing invaluable knowledge and great inspiration.
2018 & 2001 | Hall of Fame Member
Edwin C. Bearss
Badly wounded by Japanese machine-gun fire in the Pacific during World War II, Ed Bearss spent 26 months in military hospitals, where he spent...
2013 | Hall of Fame Member
The Rev. Bob Bluford
A B-24 bomber pilot in Europe during World War II, the Rev. Bob Bluford returned home to Richmond, Va., to become a Presbyterian minister, a tireless...
2012 | Hall of Fame Member
Clark B. Hall
FBI supervisory agent and congressional investigator Clark B. “Bud” Hall became involved in the fight to save a part of Virginia’s Chantilly...
2012 | Hall of Fame Member
Edward T. Wenzel
Ed Wenzel is one of the originators of the modern battlefield preservation movement. He is a co-founder of both the Chantilly Battlefield Association...
2012 | Hall of Fame Member
Emanuel “Tersh” Boasberg III
Since the first years of the modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement, Tersh Boasberg has been a tireless advocate for saving hallowed...
2010 | Hall of Fame Member
Norman D. Dicks
Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wa.), who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 to 2013, was a staunch supporter of Civil War battlefields and all...
2008 | Hall of Fame Member
Deborah Fitts
As a reporter and writer for the Civil War News from 1989 until her death from breast cancer in 2008, Deborah Fitts covered the triumphs, setbacks...
2007 | Hall of Fame Member
John P. “Jack” Ackerly III
Richmond lawyer Jack Ackerly was already deeply involved in Civil War organizations in Virginia when he became one of the eight co-founders of the...
2006 | Hall of Fame Member
Brian C. Pohanka
Brian Pohanka (1955-2005), a founder of the battlefield preservation movement, lived the role of a Civil War officer as a company captain in Duryee’s...
2006 | Hall of Fame Member
Manuel Lujan Jr.
After representing New Mexico for 30 years in the U.S. House of Representatives , Manuel Lujan Jr. was appointed Secretary of the Interior by...
2003 | Hall of Fame Member
Carrington Williams
In the late 1990s, as the Association for the Preservation of Civil War Sites and the original Civil War Trust struggled to co-exist in their shared...
2002 | Hall of Fame Member
Jerry L. Russell
Jerry Russell (1933-2003) was the national voice of the Civil War battlefield preservation movement – often a lone voice – before the creation of the...
2001 | Hall of Fame Member
Donald C. Pfanz
Historian and battlefield preservation advocate Don Pfanz passed away on September 2, 2025. Don Pfanz was a National Park Service historian at...
2001 | Hall of Fame Member
Dennis E. Frye
Retired National Park Service historian Dennis Frye is one of the founding fathers of the modern Civil War battlefield preservation movement.
