Doyce Blackman Nunis (1924–2011)

Doyce B. Nunis, 86, recipient of the Benemerenti Medal from Pope Paul VI and the Knighthood of St. Gregory from Pope John Paul II, died on January 29 after abdominal surgery.

Dr. Nunis, born in Cedartown, Georgia, on May 30, 1924, established the Oral History Program at UCLA and later spent the majority of his professional career as professor at the University of Southern California. After his conversion to the faith in the 1950s, he became active in promoting the history of the Catholic Church in California. He served as president for the Friends of the Santa Barbara Mission Archives since 1972, was founding president for the Friends of the Archival Center for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, and was a member of the American Catholic Historical Association since April 1973. A spokesman for the Serra Bicentennial Commission, he was known in the local community for his support of efforts to promote the telling of local church history.

A Guggenheim fellow in 1963 and recipient of numerous citations from various places, Dr. Nunis received the Benemerenti Medal from Pope John Paul II in February 1984 in “recognition of his importance in terms of California history and the history of the Catholic Church in California.” In addition to his scores of historical articles in learned journals, several of them about the California missions, Dr. Nunis served as editor of the prestigious Southern California Quarterly for four decades and was the author of more than forty books on the American West.