POWELL, Wyo. — Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation board member Kathleen Saito Yuille, who was born behind barbed wire in the camp hospital, will receive the Douglas Nelson Lifetime Achievement Award during the Heart Mountain Pilgrimage on July 23-25.
Yuille has led the pilgrimage activities since she joined the board in 2009, and she is a dedicated fundraiser. She is the youngest child of the Saito family from San Francisco, who were incarcerated at Heart Mountain from 1942 to 1945.
A resident of River Hills, Wis., Yuille is a former trustee of the Milwaukee Art Museum and a fundraiser and activist for the University School of Milwaukee, where her two children, Kevin and Vanessa, were students.
She credits Vanessa’s prodding for leading her to join the board on which her older sister, Setsuko Saito Higuchi, was a member until her death in 2005. Setsuko Higuchi is the mother of Shirley Ann Higuchi, chair of the HMWF board.
“Kathy joined the board during a critical growth period for the foundation,” Shirley Ann Higuchi said. “Prior to the 2011 opening of our Smithsonian-affiliate museum, she contributed significantly to our website and museum content, and ultimately executing a successful grand opening with the support of our volunteers and staff. We were honored to have over 1,000 former incarcerees, families, and supporters join us for that historic day.”
The Lifetime Achievement Award is named for HMWF Vice Chair Douglas Nelson, who first visited the site of the former camp as a graduate student at the University of Wyoming in 1968. His book, “Heart Mountain: The History of an American Concentration Camp,” was the first book to chronicle the sacrifices of the Heart Mountain draft resisters. It has been republished by the foundation and is available for sale at the Heart Mountain store and online.
The HMWF preserves the site where some 14,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly incarcerated in Wyoming from 1942 through 1945. Their stories are told within the foundation’s museum, Heart Mountain Interpretive Center, located between Cody and Powell. For more information, call the center at (307) 754-8000 or email info@heartmountain.org.