Our Staff
Rodney Obien, MSLS -- Head of Special Collections & Archives / Associate Professor
Mary Meagher, MA, Digital Archivist / Assistant Archivist (Class of 2024)
Brian Burford, Honorary Golden Circle Archivist (Class of 1972)
Rodney Obien
Rodney Obien is Head of Special Collections & Archives at Keene State College and is an associate professor in the college’s M.A. program in History & Archives. He holds a B.A. in History from Virginia Wesleyan College and a Master of Science in Library Science from the Catholic University of American. He has held archival and curatorial positions at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, State University of New York at Buffalo, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute. He is a past board member of the New Hampshire State Historical Records Advisory Board. He currently serves on the board of the Collections Care & Conservation Alliance and on the advisory committee of the Northeast Document Conservation Center.
Mary Meagher
Mary Meagher is the Assistant / Digital Archivist here at Keene State College. She completed her undergraduate degree here at KSC with a degree in Secondary Education and History with a minor in Holocaust and Genocide Studies. She recently completed her master's degree at University College Dublin in Dublin, Ireland, focused in Archives and Records Management. Her main roles and responsibilities here at KSC focus on digital preservation of our collections, as well as incorporating those materials in primary source research with graduate and undergraduate courses.
Brian Burford
Brian Nelson Burford graduated from Keene State College with a BA in History in 1973. He attended graduate school at the University of Virginia for one year but returned to New Hampshire to resume his work in the land surveying profession. He was licensed as a land surveyor in New Hampshire, and specialized in historical research relating to land. He joined the NH State Archives staff in 1995 as the State Records Manager. He was appointed the New Hampshire State Archivist in 2010 and retired from the Archives in 2022, and since that time has been researching the papers of Meshech Weare and mentoring students at Keene State College.