Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Paul Banks (custodian)

The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was delete. Consensus is that the article does not meet the notability guidelines. Davewild (talk) 07:21, 30 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Paul Banks (custodian)

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This article fails to indicate any notability. Fails WP:BIO JayJay^{What did I do?} 21:02, 22 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Weak keep, I think this issue is the location and obscurity. I have found this source [1] and this source [2]. A school was named after him in his town. There should be sources which exist in books in Homer's libraries. Research regarding this person is also difficult he has a common name and is certain not the most notable person with this name. However, I am inclined to retain this because weight should be given to deceased historical figures from rural locations. Finding information regarding them is always more difficult, but this does not meet he is not notable. He died in 1988 and has had influence in his town Homer in Alaska. The obscurity of this location suggest that finding source on the internet maybe difficult, but it does not mean sources do not exist. World War II heros in populous cities with school named after them generally passes GNG. Valoem ^talk ^contrib 21:40, 22 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete for lack of verifiability. I checked WorldCat for all the cited sources (except the personal communication with a school teacher, which I removed), and I couldn't find any of them. If there are no published sources, then the topic does not meet WP:GNG either. QVVERTYVS (hm?) 09:03, 23 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of Alaska-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 00:21, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This debate has been included in the list of People-related deletion discussions. • Gene93k (talk) 00:21, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete - Routine coverage one expects to find in a local newspaper, alongside announcements of new pothole fixings and elections for the town dog-catcher. Man bites dog territory here. Tarc (talk) 16:41, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
Delete – I do agree with points made by Valoem. Yes, those offline sources do exist, some of them can even be found outside of Homer. Look at this from the perspective of mid-to-late 20th century Homer history. There is no mention of such in main article Homer, Alaska. Homer Public Library is dominated by fairly recent coverage of an architectural award given to its current building, though past reads of the aforementioned offline sources indicate that it was highly unusual for a community as small and remote as Homer to have a public library in the 1940s. There may have been something else about the unusual aspect of a homegrown community effort to establish the library, as many libraries existing in Alaska at that point were originally established by churches, particularly the Episcopal Church. Furthermore, WP:WTAF is most often interpreted as "Unless and until *you* write the article first, everything is bullshit and shouldn't be acknowledged on here". Persons interested in study on the aforementioned subtopic of Homer history needn't be misled into thinking that Banks is representative of the notable people of this era because someone bothered to write an article, but that Hazel Heath and Yule Kilcher and Leo Rhode aren't because no articles exist. Unfortunately in Kilcher's case, there's been an Internet POV floating around for longer than Wikipedia's existed that his notability should be measured more by the celebrity stature of his granddaughter than by his own accomplishments. I can't agree. If you're telling me that the signer of a state constitution isn't notable, perhaps I've been wasting my time in the wrong place all these years. Anyway...notifying Beeblebrox and DSwarthout, who are recently active and have identified as living in this community, of this discussion. RadioKAOS / Talk to me, Billy / Transmissions 17:57, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Wow, this has been here for four years and I had no idea until just now. I don't know how much insight I can offer as this was all a bit before my time (I was ten years old and living in Ohio when he retired and they named the school after him) but I'll see if I can't locate some more substantial coverage. Beeblebrox (talk) 18:06, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Keep As a long time resident of Homer I can tell you that Paul Banks is a well known name in town. Perhaps the younger, more recent arrivals will not know the provenance of the name of the school that honors him but then they may not know about Yule Kilcher either. While Mr. Banks doesn't have the reputation or importance of Kilcher, he did have an impact on the townspeople. It's interesting that people connect Yule with his granddaughter Jewel when it really should be the other way around. Yule was a true pioneer and spent his life in Homer while Jewel only stayed until she reached her late teens. At any rate, my vote is to keep the article intact. Alaska Dave (talk) 22:01, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]
It's a nice story and one that my uncle (lives close by in Happy Valley, coincidentally enough) have collaborated, but just being a locally famous person isn't enough to justify an encyclopedia entry. If reliable sources do not cover the subject sufficiently, then deletion should be the outcome here. I find this appeal to local denizens to be a form of illegitimate canvassing, to boot. Tarc (talk) 23:21, 26 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, I'm a young whippersnapper, "only" 42 years old and have "only" lived in Homer for 16 years. In any event, whatever we may think as locals who have of course all heard this name what matters, as always, is significant coverage from reliable sources. That seems to be what is eluding us here. The local papers don't have online archives going back that far, and even if they did they are just the local papers. Beeblebrox (talk) 17:45, 29 May 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Delete, he may well be a local celebrity and an all around worthy person, but the issue here is the lack of sources that can verify this. They might very well be in a filing cabinet in the Homer library, but sources we can't see or verify with are as good as useless. Lankiveil ^{(speak to me)} 02:28, 30 May 2015 (UTC).[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.