I am in the process of rereading a college thesis written about Sun City. There's two of them at the museum and this one is easily the better of the pair. It dates back to 1992 when Melanie Sturgeon was spending a lot of time at the Sun Cities Historical Society as she was working her way through school. Now we know it as the Del Webb Sun Cities Museum. Melanie has gone on to become the State Archivist and Director of Archives and Records Management for Arizona. Pretty darn impressive and for anyone reading her thesis, it's easy to understand why she accomplished what she did. "It's a Paradise Town" : The Marketing and Development of Sun City Arizona is brilliantly researched and written. Which is the perfect segue into an idea we have been kicking around at the museum. Our website is functional and kind of pretty, but we all agree it can be so much more. Dozens of books on aging have been written with Sun City playing an integral role. Magazines. newspapers, radio, television shows and all other forms of media have used us time and time again. The interesting thing is, we have barely scratched the surface of available materials. Buried in our closets, drawers and files are volumes of relevant data. The challenge is to dig it out and process and catalogue it. Bigger yet is how to develop it into the kind of website that would become more than a museum, but a virtual online research center. We think it's possible and this summer we hope to work to that end. Anyone having skills in this area should contact the museum or email me at bpearson6@cox.net.
