Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award
Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipients
2026 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Julie Costello
Dr. Julia G. Costello received her M.A. in prehistoric archaeology in 1972 from the University of Denver and then spent two years excavating Bronze, Iron-Age, and Roman sites Lebanon. She came to California in 1974, where she received her Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara. Dr. Costello served on the Board and as Chair of the California State Historical Resources Commission. She served on the Board of Directors and then President of both the Society for Historical Archaeology and the Society for California Archaeology. She also served on the Board of Directors of the California Mission Studies Association from 1988-1994.
Dr. Costello has directed major archaeological research projects at numerous Spanish Colonial sites in California including El Presidio de Santa Barbara State Historic Park, Mission San Antonio de Padua, El Pueblo de Los Angeles, Mission La Purísima Vieja, Mission Santa Inés, Mission San Buenaventura, and over a dozen Rancho sites. She has served as consultant on numerous projects at California missions and presidios. Her doctoral dissertation (1990) provides a comparative analysis of the economic development of the California missions using both archaeological and documentary data.
She has published dozens of articles on her research and several books including Excavations at Mission San Antonio de Padua, 1976-1978 with Robert Hoover, and Santa Inés Mission Excavations, 1986-1988. For the Smithsonian publication Columbian Consequences she invited and edited the papers on California Spanish Colonial archaeology and, with David Hornbeck, provided the overview for this section. For the Garland Press Spanish Borderlands Sourcebook series, she edited Documentary Evidence for the Spanish Missions of Alta California and co-edited The Archaeology of Spanish California. Dr. Costello is a Co-author of the SHA publication The Archaeology of Spanish and Mexican Alta California. The California Missions: History, Art and Preservation, co-authored with Edna Kimbo and published by the Getty Conservation Institute (2009), was awarded the International Book Award’s Grand Prize for Non-Fiction in 2010. In 1999, Dr. Costello – with Edna Kimbro – authored the successful National Historic Landmarks District for Mission Santa Ines, and in 2023, she was senior author of the National Register application for Mission La Purisima State Historic Park for the California Office of Historic Preservation.
2026 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Andrew Galvan
Andrew A. Galvan is an Ohlone, Bay Miwok, Plains Miwok and Patwin Indian. His ancestral lands comprise the greater San Francisco Bay Region. His family’s roots reach back beyond European contact in the area. Andrew traces his ancestral lineage to the laying of the cornerstone of the first buildings at Mission San Jose by his great-great-grandfather Chief Tarino. The cornerstone for the present restored Mission San Jose Church was laid by his father Felipe “Phil” Galvan in June 1982.
Recent research has discovered his great-great-great-great grandfather’s baptismal entry in the Registers of Old Mission Dolores, San Francisco, dated November 1794.
Lately, Andrew Galvan’s efforts have focused on developing ways to preserve information about America’s ancient past for the benefit of future generations. One of his strong beliefs is that Ohlone people need to know more about their ancestors. He views archaeology and physical anthropology as a way of retrieving some of what his people have lost. He believes that studies of archaeological remains are the only way he can discover what the lives of his ancient ancestors were really like. Beginning in 1976 at the well-known Holiday Inn Site in downtown San Jose through the present, Andrew has served as a Native American Indian Consultant and/or Monitor at pre-contact archaeological sites in the Counties of Alameda, Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara.
Since 1978, he has been an active promoter of the Canonization Cause of Padre Junipero Serra.
Andrew is President Emeritus of The Board of Directors of The Ohlone Indian Tribe, Inc., as well as Immediate Past President of the Board of Directors for the Committee for the Restoration of Mission San Jose. A long-time member of The California Mission Studies Association Andrew was its Board President from 1993 - 1997. Andrew is a founding member of The California Missions Foundation.
As of February 1, 2004, Andrew has undertaken the duties as Curator of Old Mission Dolores, San Francisco, California. And, recently, Andrew has accepted the Invitation to be Curator at Mission San Jose in Fremont, California.
Since 2006, Andrew has joined the Franciscan Pilgrimage Program assisting in pilgrimages to the Alta California Missions.
In September 2015, Andrew was appointed by the California Conference of Catholic Bishops to lead a cultural study of all 21 California Missions. The Study will include a review of displays and signage, updates to materials used to train docents and guides, and similar updates to artwork and presentations on Mission and related websites.
Andrew earned his B.A. in History from the California State University at Hayward.
2025 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
John R. Johnson, Ph.D.
Dr. John Johnson served 37 years as Curator of Anthropology at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and since retirement in 2023 holds the position of Curator Emeritus. He taught an anthropology course on Indigenous Peoples of California Indians for eighteen years at UCSB. Dr. Johnson has long been engaged in research using mission records. He has served on the board of directors of the Santa Bárbara Mission Archive-Library since 1993 and is current board president. His written contributions include more than 100 studies regarding the cultures, history, and ancient past of California’s Indigenous peoples, especially emphasizing the Chumash Indians of the Santa Barbara region. In 2000, he was the first recipient of CMF’s prestigious Norman Neuerburg Award.
2024 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Bill Fairbanks
Bill Fairbanks taught anthropology and sociology at Cuesta College from 1966-2007. In 1975 he received his Ph.D. in anthropology from UCSB with a dissertation on The Acculturation of the Pomo Indians of Northern California. He was on the Board of CMSA and hosted the 2004 Conference in San Luis Obispo. In 2021 he received the Edna Kimbro Award from the California Missions Foundation.
2023 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Fray Francisco Morales, O.F.M.
Francisco Morales, O.F.M. was born in Mexico City. He received his MA and PhD at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. He has published countless books, lectured at a variety of Universities and received a distinguished Alumnus Award from the Department of History at the Catholic University of America. He is also a fellow of the Academy of American Franciscan History. He has lectured at the Pontifical University in Salamanca, Spain and was advisor for the Franciscan General Chapter in San Diego.
2022 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Dr. Daniel E. Krieger
Dan Krieger is Professor of History Emeritus at Cal Poly State University, San Luis Obispo. Since 1984, he has written a history column for the San Luis Obispo County Tribune (McClatchy). He has chaired the Historic Resources Committee at Mission San Luis Obispo and created the first Docent Education Program at that Mission in 1987. He is a past President of the California Mission Studies Association.
2022 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Dr. Robert L. Hoover
Robert L. Hoover received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley, with a specialty in California archaeology. He has taught at Stanford University and was a professor at California Polytechnic State University from 1970 until his retirement in 1998. Since 1976, he has specialized in Spanish colonial archaeology, serving continuously as director of the Archaeological Field school at Mission San Antonio for over 30 years and training over 500 students. Dr. Hoover has also excavated at Missions Santa Inés, La Purísima, Santa Barbara, San Miguel, San Luis Obispo, and for nine years at the Presidio of Santa Barbara. He is a recipient of the Award of distinction from the California Council for the Promotion of History and has received the Norman Neuerburg and Fermin Lasuen Awards from the California Mission Studies Association.
Dr. Hoover was a member of the State Historical Resources Commission for 18 years, from 1984-2002, serving three administrations. During that time, he was instrumental in implementing the California Register of Historic Resources through the Office of Administrative Law and establishing an additional Archaeological Information Center in Humboldt and Del Norte Counties operated by the Yurok tribe. He is Past President of the California Mission Studies Association and the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation and has published on prehistoric and historic archaeology of California in English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese. Hoover has completed nearly 1,000 projects for Federal, State, and local governments and for private entities. He has served as a member of numerous other local, state, national, and international organizations, including being elected a Fellow of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, the board of the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library, and the California Mission Foundation.
2021 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Zella and Hernan Ibañez
It is an honor for CMF to recognize Zella and Hernan Ibañez for their lifetime achievement and commitment to historic preservation in Baja California. For more than two decades, their efforts at leading and keeping alive the CAREM organization has meant so much to making sure that the story of the missions and Native community throughout Baja California continues for the next generation. Many historic preservation projects have been completed as a result of both of their efforts, and their Tecate Museum Museo Comunitario Kumíaí focuses not only on the story of the Kumeyaay who extended north to Mission San Diego, but also to the entire Tecate community. Through CAREM, they have been able to focus attention on the history of the development of the first missions in the California Mission chain specifically the missions on the peninsula of Baja California. They have also been able to portray the history and culture of the Native people of Baja California not only through their museum, but also through written documents as well as programs for students and adults alike.
2020 Knox Mellon Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient
Dr. Knox Mellon