Author, writer, historical researcher

During Silvia Pettem's forty-year career as an author, writer, and historical researcher, she continues to write a local history newspaper column, has authored more than a dozen books and has served on nearly every historically related board in Boulder, Colorado. Her research has extended from fleshing out the life of a Victorian female professor to helping to solve the identity of a fifty-five-year-old cold-case homicide. Silvia, a grandmother of four, lives in the mountains west of Boulder with her husband, Ed Raines, and cat, Nellie Bly.

Current writing projects:
Cold Case Research: Resources for Unidentified, Missing, and Cold Case Homicides will be released by CRC Press (imprint of Taylor & Francis) in July 2012.
History columnist for the Boulder Camera, alternating Sundays.

Past writing projects:
Video script writer: Boulder Sesquicentennnial and A Celebration of Macky: 100 Years
Writer of interpretive signs in North Broadway bus shelters
Writer of 12 interpretive panels on Boulder's Pearl Street Pedestrian Mall
Author of 21 books and booklets on Colorado history
History columnist for the Daily Camera since 1998
History columnist for the Boulder Planet, 1996-1998
Historical features writer for Longmont Times-Call, 1984-1988
Historical features writer and food columnist for the Daily Camera, 1977-1980

Awards:
Winner of the "Book-length General Non-fiction Award" from the Colorado Authors' League for Only in Boulder: The County's Colorful Characters, May 2011.
Recipient of the Historic Preservation Award (along with Mike Greenwood and Mary Reilly-McNellan) from the City of Boulder Landmarks Board –– for the Dorothy Gay Howard Gravestone Reconstruction, May 2011.
Recognition by the Boulder Heritage Roundtable Association for Only in Boulder: The County's Colorful Characters and Boulder: A Sense of Time and Place Revisited, May 2011.
Recipient of the Vidocq Society's Medal of Honor for the Boulder Jane Doe case, October 2010.
Finalist in the 2010 Colorado Book Awards for Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe, May 2010.
Recognition by the Boulder Heritage Roundtable Association for Someone's Daughter: In Search of Justice for Jane Doe, May 2010.
Recipient of the City of Boulder Historic Preservation Award for "outstanding example of historic preservation" in working with the Boulder Transportation Department on the "Broadway In Motion" project, May 2010.
Recipient of Historic Boulder's "Preservation in Action, Volunteers of the Year award" for being a member of the Boulder Sesquicentennial Celebration Committee, 2009.
Recipient of the Sheriff's Commendation Award, for being the "driving force" behind the resurrection of the 1954 Jane Doe homicide investigation, November 2008.
Recipient of the Square Nail Award, presented by the Boulder Heritage Roundtable “to people dedicated to the cause of preserving Boulder County’s cultural heritage and history,” May 2003.
Finalist in the Colorado Center for the Book awards for Separate Lives: The Story of Mary Rippon, October 2000.
First place winner for nonfiction in the Colorado Independent Publishers’ Association awards for Separate Lives: The Story of Mary Rippon, 2000.
First place winner for life stories in the Writers’ Digest national self-published book awards for Separate Lives: The Story of Mary Rippon, 1999.