The AHA Teaching Division with the support of the Association's governing Council has opened a fund drive to honor the memory of its late Vice President and leader, Mary K. Bonsteel Tachau, who passed away last fall. Donations are invited from her many friends, students, and affectionate colleagues to the History Teaching Alliance's "Tachau Challenge Fund," which will become part of the Alliance's endowment and be matched on a one-for-three basis under the terms of a challenge grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Sponsored by the AHA, the OAH, and the National Council for the Social Studies, the History Teaching Alliance promotes and supports the creation of local collaboratives across the nation which brings together K-12 teachers, college and university faculty, and specialists from museums, historical agencies, and other cultural organizations to engage in focused, collegial study of significant historical topics. Established in 1985, these partnerships have proven extraordinarily successful in gathering together over 1,500 individuals in 69 programs in 30 states. A particular focus of the HTA since the beginning has been constitutional history, and Professor Tachau, a constitutional historian herself, was one of the first HTA directors. As AHA Vice President, she remained one of the Alliance's most ardent advocates, and the Division felt that an HTA endowment fund would be a particularly appropriate way to honor her commitment both to teaching and to consitutional history.

Contributions marked "Tachau Challenge Fund" should be sent to Anthony Beninati, Director, History Teaching Alliance, Department of History, 4131 Turlington Hall, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Contributions are of course tax deductible.