Newlyweds Cathy and Dixon Sherman arrived in Alaska in 1982 as the last part of their honeymoon road trip.
“Our plan was to drive across the country, see friends and then we decided just to drive on up,” she explained.
They’ve been here ever since.
Initially they found work in Seward, but by 1985 they moved to Cordova full time “with everything we owned on the ferry, including a fish tank in the front seat of the truck.”
Cathy Sherman, the daughter of a newspaper editor, graduated from Juniata College in Pennsylvania, with a degree in archeology and a minor in journalism. Her first job was writing obituaries for her father’s newspaper. Initially she wanted to major in paleontology.
“I was going for paleontology but couldn’t pass chem,” she said. “I tried three times. I finally got a D and my college advisor suggest I go across the street to humanities.”
While in Cordova, she worked at a daycare center for Bidarki, served as director of the Chamber of Commerce until 1989, and volunteered at Cordova District Fishermen United. By 1990, Sherman took some time off to be a full-time mother to their daughter, Rachel, and volunteered at the Cordova Historical Museum.
The volunteer position led to part-time employment, then full time. Later came the combined responsibility of overseeing the library as well, where Sherman oversaw many significant periods of growth.
“The museum was always on line for budget cuts, and we started to strengthen our public outreach and our programming, and we brought the elementary schools in to do cultural curriculum with us once a month, because at the time they weren’t having any history in the grade school, at least Alaskan history,” she said. “So we developed that program and it was great for a couple of reasons; it brought history to the kids, kids didn’t even know we used to have a train here or didn’t know a lot about the story of Cordova, but also kids brought the parents in, so that started to draw our base a little bigger, for support, and it diversified our attendance so that we had a good attendance year round.”
Sherman loved being involved with the educational outreach and teaching young kids, which also led to the growth and strong support of the museum from the community. More visitors to the museum made for better numbers necessary in grant writing. Sherman counted every one of the school classes that came in to garner more support. Support also came from museum and library employees, and the former director of the historical museum, Lavon Branshaw.
“Lavon, was a great mentor, she brought the museum up a notch,” Sherman said. “And she had gone through the battles, paving the way for me. I still continue to do things with her in mind. Gale Steen and Virginia Lacey; they were huge supporters. [They] gave me a really good feel for what our community and museum should be like.”
Another significant time period for the museum was its physical move across the street into the Cordova Center in 2014. The new museum space keeps the entire collection in one building that is temperature and humidity controlled. While many Cordovans loved the charm of the old building, the new museum has more space for storage and display. Many items previously stored are now proudly displayed, like a wooden clam washer, painted in turquoise and white, one of Sherman’s favorite additions.
Of all the items in the museum, Sherman’s favorite is a long, narrow, wood oar. It’s a simple, not an uncommon object, but to Sherman it represents so much more. It’s a glimpse back in time to what commercial fishing used to be like, before the age of jet engines, refrigeration on board, and even cabins to sleep in. While the oar might seem slightly unremarkable, it’s the effort, labor, the harsh conditions is what is extraordinary to Sherman.
When they first realized Cordova doesn’t get sun for half the year, the Shermans weren’t sure they would stay in Cordova, “but we just grew to love it so much,” she said.
It’s a tight-knit group that work together in the library and museum. Sherman describes them as a family.
Museum employee Janet Elisovsky describes Sherman as “a calming influence, a real gentle spirit. The reason why we’re is all here is because of Cathy; she’s real humble about it.”
In retirement, Sherman plans to spend more time traveling with her husband and more time with her grandchildren.She also plans to stay involved with the museum, focusing on research, sitting with the archives, writing grants for historical society and writing the museum newsletter. Retiring will give her more time to “enjoy the photographs, staring and looking at everything going on in the picture and taking myself back there,” she said.
