Obituaries
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Mike Roe, 61, learning resources specialist at Bainbridge High School Library in Bainbridge Island, Washington, died unexpectedly in his sleep December 18. He had worked in the district for 37 years as librarian, teacher, and football and soccer coach.
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Jennifer Preston, 36, teen librarian at Novi (Mich.) Library since 2008, died of heart and lung complications March 8. Preston was instrumental in establishing the library’s dedicated teen space three years ago.
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Donald J. Sager, 76, former director of the Public Library of Columbus and Franklin County (Ohio), Chicago Public Library, and Milwaukee (Wis.) Public Library, died January 1 of Parkinson’s disease. In 2005, Sager received the ALA’s Joseph W. Lippincott Award for distinguished service to the profession of librarianship.
He had served as president of the Public Library Association and as a board member of the Urban Libraries Council, as well as a contributing editor for Public Libraries for 10 years. Sager wrote eight books on librarianship and many articles, reviews, and book chapters. He had also led libraries in Elyria, Ohio; Kingston, New York; and Elmhurst, Illinois.
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Edna Travis Turner, 89, a librarian at Tuscaloosa (Ala.) Public Library for 20 years until her 2007 retirement, died December 26. Before her library career, she taught at high schools in Tuscaloosa and Birmingham.
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Doris Wells, 65, branch manager at DeKalb County (Ga.) Public Library System’s Wesley Chapel—William C. Brown Library for 17 years until her 2006 retirement, died of cancer February 27. Wells became the system’s first African American employee in 1974.
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Ruth Schluchter Smith, chief of the Office of Customer Services and Library Liaison for the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Technical Information Service until her 1987 retirement, died December 24. She had previously served as manager of technical information services for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Arlington, Virginia. During her career, she received the John Cotton Dana award for library public relations, and was named a Special Libraries Association Fellow and to the SLA Hall of Fame. She also wrote many publications on church librarianship, was a founding member of the Church Library Council of Greater Washington, and served as the first president of the Church and Synagogue Library Association.
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Susan Elliott, 62, who worked for more than 40 years at Odessa (Texas) College Learning Resources Center, most recently as director of technical services for the Learning Resources Center, died January 8 of cancer.
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John A. Lynch, husband of 1985-86 ALA President Beverly Lynch, died February 16.
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ELS Elliot L. Shelkrot, 72, director of the Free Library of Philadelphia for 20 years until his 2007 retirement, died March 21 of heart disease. Under his leadership, the library system formed partnerships during a time of city budget cuts to renovate and expand services at all of the system’s branches. Shelkrot had also served as Pennsylvania state librarian from 1980 to 1987, and as 1992–1993 president of PLA.
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Lisa Zhao, 66, catalog librarian at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) from 1990 to 2015, died March 22 of cancer. Zhao was 2013–2014 president of the Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA) and one of five members who initiated CALA’s 21st Century Seminar Series. She received a bachelor’s in wireless telecommunication engineering in China and came to the US in 1986 as a master’s student at UIC. She received her master’s from the department of mass communication and theater at UIC in 1988, then a master’s in library and information science from University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1997. She was named associate professor and catalog librarian at the UIC Library in 1990. -
Charles W. Robinson, 88, director of Baltimore County Public Library from 1963 until his 1996 retirement, died April 8 after a long illness. Robinson served as president of the Public Library Association (PLA) in 1985 and chaired its first national conference, and he served twice on ALA Council. Robinson pioneered a centralized collection development strategy for public libraries as well as a data-based approach for demonstrating the library’s value to local government. He contributed to PLA’s Output Measures for Public Libraries, and Planning and Role Setting for Public Libraries and helped to establish the annual Public Library Data Service Statistical Report. He received the Maryland Library Association’s Outstanding Member Award in 1977 and its Honorary Membership in 1991. PLA established the Charlie Robinson Award in his honor in 1997 to recognize public library directors who are risk-takers, innovators, and change agents.
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Alan Erickson, 88, librarian at the Godfrey Lowell Cabot Science Library at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, died March 23 following a brief illness. Erickson began as associate librarian at Harvard in 1966 and was instrumental in the planning and construction of the Cabot Library, where he served until his retirement in 1991. He also served as a board member for the BIOSIS Company, a life sciences citation index now part of Thomson Reuters. He earned a PhD in biology from Boston University and an MLS from Simmons College.
