Guy Rocha - Excerpt 2 Transcript
(Reno, Nevada; August 15, 2001)

VC: Okay, this is probably related. What would you consider Jean Ford's legacy?

GR: It's definitely related. I think if we look back and, you know, it's 2001 and - and we look back, and I'm going to look at her legacy dealing with women's history. I mean, certainly there's a political legacy and people in the library community know that going way back this lady felt very strongly about literacy and the value of the book and things of that nature. I know she did some other public policy things that were rather progressive, despite the fact that she was a Republican. She did figure out - She joined the Democratic Party later. But in the ten years (GRocha2) between, you know, her getting involved with the university and now, women's history in Nevada took a quantum leap forward, all right? And she didn't come out - she didn't have a Ph.D. or anything, she didn't come out of an academic background, but as an advocate she put women's history on the radar screen in Nevada, not only in things written about women, but the resources. She realized it was more than just books. It came down to how do we document women's accomplishments, and a lot of these dealt with either finding the record or creating the record, and in that time she began to understand in a broader way the documentation process of identifying women across the board,(GRocha2) and of course I told her, "When you look at these women, look at all the women," and I says, "Look at prostitutes," okay, "look at working class women, not just middle class white women, but look at all the women, and not just middle class women of color, look at all the women, look at all these people, because sometimes we forget that all of them are trying to make their way," and of course my training as an undergraduate at Syracuse, I've been exposed to what's called the sociology of deviant behavior, and I began writing about women and prostitutes and the sex industry, and I felt it was important to better understand why women make those choices, and she listened to me on that because I began to see some of the things that appeared and where they were - and I says, you know, "Take a look at Beverly Harrell and what she - as madam of the Cottontail Ranch, and these women who are managers of these businesses, what are they doing, what do they think they're doing, how do they feel about what they're doing," and she heard what I had to say there, she was receptive, she says, "Yeah, I think that's important that we do that," so it wasn't just, you know, the women's service groups and kind of that - the traditional groups like that, but they began to look a the spectrum of women in society, and I think - I think that was important. So now people build on that. I mean, what I've seen, I mean everywhere I go now, it's as though Jean - I see Jean everywhere, you know, and I hear about Jean everywhere, so people are - in the 21st century, people, you know, they have a head start on this. She laid the foundation, and her legacy will be remembered - one of her legacies will be remembered as what's she's done for women's history. And that's really where I interact with - interacted with her the most.