Obituaries
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Peter Spyers-Duran, 91, professor and dean of the library and MLIS program at Wayne State University (WSU) in Detroit from 1983 until his 1995 retirement, died July 2. In his career, he held library management roles at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB); Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton; Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo; University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee; University of Wichita in Kansas; and ALA. Spyers-Duran authored numerous articles and wrote or edited 10 books, including Austerity Management in Academic Libraries (1984) and Issues in Academic Librarianship (1985). He served on the editorial board of the Journal of Library Administration from 1989 to 1995 and, along with his wife, Jane, created endowments and scholarships for the benefit of students at WSU and CSULB.
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Phoebe Jane Smith, 91, who worked for many years in both the art and children’s departments of Seattle Public Library, died June 13.
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Randall Rosensteel, 84, a longtime member of ALA, the Catholic Library Association, and the Pennsylvania Library Association, died May 23. He spent his career working in various positions in the Parkway Central Library of the Free Library of Philadelphia, retiring in 2001.
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Brittney Leigh Goodman, 56, director of the Faculty and Professional Learning Center at Minnesota State University Moorhead (MSUM), died March 8. She joined the university as a librarian in 1997 and held many roles there, including professor, dean of instructional resources, and executive director of MSUM’s Livingston Lord Library. She was also active in ACRL.
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Theresa LaNell Dickson, 76, retired librarian and administrator at Pioneer Library System in central Oklahoma, died April 8.
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Veronica T. Chiang, 87, librarian and exhibits director for 45 years at Pollak Library at California State University, Fullerton (CSUF), died June 1. In collaboration with her second husband, artist Scott FitzGerald, she mounted more than 100 library exhibits. Together, they designed CSUF’s Atrium Gallery.
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Robert Britt, who worked in the East Asian Law Department of the University of Washington’s Gallagher Law Library in Seattle from 1987 to 2019, died June 23. He handled all aspects of Japanese legal materials at the library, and eventually did so for Chinese and Korean legal materials as well. He was active in the Council on East Asian Libraries. His publications included Japanese Laws in English: An Index to the EHS Law Bulletin Series, an index that greatly improved access to Japanese laws in English translation.
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Patricia “Pat” A. Wand, 81, longtime ALA and international library leader, died April 28. During her career, Wand held positions at Wittenberg University Library in Springfield, Ohio; College of Staten Island, City University of New York; Columbia University Libraries in New York City; and University of Oregon in Eugene. She also served as university librarian and professor at American University in Washington, D.C., and as dean of library and learning resources and professor at Zayed University in the United Arab Emirates. She chaired ALA’s Budget Analysis Review Committee and Committee on Legislation and helped to grow ALA’s endowment as an endowment trustee (and later senior endowment trustee). On behalf of ALA and other library associations, she testified three times before the US House Subcommittee on Legislative Appropriations in support of budgets for the Library of Congress and the Superintendent of Documents. She was also particularly active in the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL), serving on its board, as chair of its Budget and Finance and International Relations committees, and as ACRL representative on ALA Council. She helped found the ACRL Instruction Section in 1977 and chaired the Anthropology and Sociology Section from 1982 to 1983.
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Marilynn “Dale” Thompson, 79, director of Providence (R.I.) Public Library (PPL) for 34 years until her 2014 retirement, died March 25. In 2001, under her leadership, PPL received the Institute of Museum and Library Services’ National Medal for Museum and Library Service.
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Helen Miller, 82, who worked for 38 years at the Free Library of Philadelphia until retiring in 2005 as director of public services, died March 2. As the library’s West Philadelphia area administrator, Miller developed significant collections of African American and Southeast Asian materials and oversaw the opening of three new branches in West Philadelphia. As chief of neighborhood libraries, she administered the operations of 48 branches and three regional libraries, and chaired the Preschool Door-to-Learning Task Force that created preschool centers in all branch libraries. When Miller became the library’s director of public service in 1995, she managed an $18 million Model Urban Library Services for Children grant from the William Penn Foundation, which renovated branch libraries.
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Jenny Keller, 42, school librarian at Krieger Schechter Day School in Baltimore, died January 23.
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Anne Haynes, 75, who was a librarian at Indiana University in Bloomington before her retirement, died February 27. She worked as a music librarian, cataloger, and a reference librarian in her 40-year career at the school. She also volunteered as a literacy tutor at Monroe County (Ind.) Public Library.