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About Us
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Our offices are located in the front portion of the historic Phillip H. Keck house, built in 1856, at 15 Highland Street in Westover.
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Located in Westover, West Virginia, just across the river from the downtown Morgantown campus of West Virginia University, Populore Publishing Company is happy to have been helping people publish their words in beautiful books since 1995. We are a small group of specialists in writing, research, design, personal history, and production oversight and management. We're friendly, experienced, and good at what we do. |
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Rae Jean Sielen and Ken St. Louis
Populore Co-Owners
Rae Jean Sielen and Ken St. Louis, husband and wife, founded Populore in 1995 in order to make publishing more accessible for everyday people. |
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As a little girl in southern California, Rae Jean loved going downtown with her mother to shop and watching the beautifully dressed ladies in the gift wrapping sections of the elegant department stores. She admired the boxes, luxurious satiny ribbons, and giant rolls of fancy paper, with their different colors, prints, and textures. She was fascinated by the expertly-folded corners of the wrapping, how with a bit of care and artistry, a special gift could become truly unforgettable.
Today, Rae Jean is proud to say that she's living one of her childhood fantasies! She helps her clients package and assemble very important gifts—their stories or other material—preserved forever. She looks at books like a world-class gift wrapper would—with an eye for beauty, quality, and polish in content, design, paper, and printing and binding techniques.
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As President of Populore, Rae Jean's primary role is project development and management. Rae Jean loves publishing for its variety—in clients, words, graphics, processes, challenges, and results. As project manager, she's involved in every facet of the process.
Rae Jean brings an extensive and varied small business, writing, management, and training background to Populore. She received an A.B. in linguistics from the University of California and an M.S. in speech and hearing sciences from the University of Washington. She is also a graduate of University of Washington's "mini-MBA certification program."
Prior to Populore, much of Rae Jean's life had been devoted to good writing and editing, as well as recording people's and organizations's stories in indirect ways. One of the first places she began to recognize the value of sharing and preserving stories in writing was during her speech-language pathology student days, much of which included interviewing, listening and writing.
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As a driving force in Populore's founding, Ken St. Louis continues to be involved as an officer of the company and an advisor. A former owner of two small businesses, his expertise is in the areas of planning, operations management, and story research.
Ken St. Louis is a Professor at West Virginia University in the Speech Pathology and Audiology department. Some of his scholarly work has been in the area of "stories"; specifically, he has looked at the healing power of telling one's story for people who stutter and have other speech disorders. More about Ken's work in stuttering…
Ken grew up on a ranch in rural Colorado and went to a one-room schoolhouse where his aunt was the teacher and most of his fellow classmates were his siblings and cousins. Ken's youth and large extended family have made him a great fan of good stories and a believer in preserving stories for future generations.
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Angela Caudill
Design
Angela Caudill received her degree in Graphic Design from West Virginia University. She went on to work as a designer, Manager of Publications Services, and Director of Creative Services at WVU.
When a project has special design needs, Populore seeks out Angela's capable creative input. There are many milestones in the book production process, but one of the most exciting for clients, and the Populore staff, is seeing Angela's cover and page layout designs. At that point, the manuscript begins to become a "book."
Angela's creative talents go beyond designing book covers and page layouts—she has produced maps, tables, collages, sketches, and elements of our web site. She's quick, creative, and has a great eye and artistic vision. Angela understands what Populore is all about and believes in its mission.
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Other Members of the Populore Team |
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Ginny Petersen, recently retired from the Office of the President at West Virginia University, provides expert assistance in editing, research, and—especially—genealogical research and family tree design. |
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If you call Populore, you may talk to Bookkeeper & Administrative Assistant Beth Ervin. |
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Publishing Assistant Joe Ervin provides computer and production support. Joe earned his bachelor's and master's degrees in foreign languages at West Virginia University, |
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A few of them…gone,
but not forgotten! |
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Through the years we've been fortunate to have many students work for us—either in part-time student jobs or for paid and unpaid internships. Such resources are part of the joy of being located in a university town. Offering opportunities for students has been one of Populore's common practices since its founding.
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And Also… |
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A successful [book] production manager is one who knows the vast array of technical data, material specifications, prices, sources, processes, and equipment that go into the manufacture of books and can organize this knowledge in a smooth and efficient operation…[he/she needs] a knack for getting cooperation from a variety of people.— M. Lee, author: Bookmaking…
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All of the expertise required to complete most Populore projects won't fit under our one roof. We contract with other great writers, interviewers, graphics people, and translators, as well as various printers (offset, letterpress, specialty ink-jet, and laser) and binders (hand, bindery, and book manufacturers). We also work with an extraordinarily talented and patient computer technician.
Thanks to over ten years of working with diverse and interesting clients, Rae Jean has built these strong working relationships with outside craftsmen and businesses. They comprise a strong foundation of resources and wisdom that supports Populore in achieving its mission.
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