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Kathy Klump, President of the Sulphur Springs Valley Historical Society, has dedicated over forty years of volunteer activities in Willcox, Arizona.  She oversees the day to day operations of the Chiricahua Regional Museum and Research Center as archivist and research librarian.  She is active in researching, collecting and preserving the history of Willcox and the surrounding towns in the Sulphur Springs Valley, Bowie, San Simon, and Bonita.  As President, Kathy is in charge of the care of four historic buildings in Willcox and the historic church in Cochise, Arizona.

 She served on the executive committee to help save the Southern Pacific Railroad Depot in Willcox, and raised the majority of the funds needed to match the grants.  She was instrumental in starting the Chiricahua Regional Museum in 1999 and raising funds necessary to purchase the historic Valley Hardware building as its home. This museum features the history of the Chiricahua Apache, ranching, and town history.

 In 2003, Kathy spearheaded the project of saving the Huffman’s Toggery store with its original furnishings from 1916, successfully raising the money to pay for the building.   The store became a museum and the location of the research library.  Besides books, maps, photos, scrapbooks, etc., researchers can access the old newspapers from 1894 on, which are being preserved, or get help with their genealogy.  She has also seen that historical, anthropological, and archaeological classes, displays, and programs are presented throughout the year.   She founded the “Wheels of Progress” that honors important persons in Willcox history, researches and writes their biographies, and compiled the book, “Willcox, Arizona 1915, the Year of Incorporation In Clippings”.  She is the co-author of “Images of America: Willcox”, the story of Willcox, Arizona through over 200 photographs.

Kathy was co-founder of the Friends of Elsie S. Hogan Community Library in 1981.  She purchased two original business buildings on historic Railroad Avenue which were used by the Friends as their bookstore.  This continues to be the main fundraiser for the community library.  Over the past twenty years, it has provided thousands of dollars to help build the new library building and providing books, kids programs, necessary supplies, furnishings and equipment for the library and cultural programs for the community.   The bookstore also helped keep the historic downtown alive and the buildings preserved.

  Kathy coordinated the reprinting of “Southwestern Town”, the official history of Willcox.  She has also been in charge of the authors and books for the Western Book Exposition for the past eight years being held in Willcox, Tucson, and Tombstone.

While Kathy was President of the Arizona Library Friends, she was elected one of eight delegates to represent Arizona at the White House Conference on Library and Information Services in Washington, D. C.  Soon after this, she was recognized as “Willcox Citizen of the Year”.

For nine years, Kathy was the volunteer librarian at the Amerind Foundation’s research library in Dragoon.  She has served on the board of directors for the Rex Allen Museum, and is a member of the Museum Association of Cochise County.   She is also a member of the Willcox Cowbelles, and on the board of directors of Cochise County Historical Society.

Kathy was on the local committee for the new I-10 exit 340 overpass helping create a design that features Willcox’s heritage.

Kathy was named one of only 100 Arizona Culture Keepers selected for the Centennial of Arizona Statehood in 2012 for those who have most contributed to preserving the history and heritage of Arizona.

 Kathy is a third generation Arizonan, born in Cottonwood, Arizona.  Her husband’s family settled near Willcox in 1904 and have been involved in cattle ranching since that time.  Kathy wrote the history of the Klump Family in honor of their 100th Anniversary in Arizona.   She and her husband, Keith live in one of the original homes in Willcox, built about 1893, and are in the process of renovating it.  They have six grown children and fifteen grandchildren.