The founder of the Northern Appalachian Folk Festival has passed away. James P. Dougherty , a former faculty member at IUP, historian and ethnographer for the National Park Service, editor and documentary film producer, was the founder of IUP’s Center for Northern Appalachian Studies and helped create the Northern Appalachian Folk Festival in 2013.
A native of Clearfield County, Dougherty was a graduate of Clarion University and IUP and earned his PhD at SUNY Buffalo. He began teaching at IUP in 1979.
In a Facebook post, the folk festival says Dougherty leaves behind “a legacy of scholarship and service,” calling him “an inexhaustible champion for working-class culture.”
Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.
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