Obituaries
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Gordon M. Marshall Jr., 70, died from cancer on February 13.
Marshall held a master’s degree in early American history from Clark University in Worcester, Mass. and taught history at Worcester Polytechnic Institute from 1969 to 1970. From 1971 to 1993, Gordon was assistant librarian at the Library Company of Philadelphia, where he revived the exhibition program and designed notable shows, including “The Larder Invaded,” a cook’s tour of 300 years of local culinaria. During the early 1990s, Marshall led a $1 million renovation that transformed the library into a modern research center. In 2002, he was invited back to the library as a board trustee. After serving three three-year terms, he was named an emeritus trustee in 2012.
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Eve Kline, 70, director of the Somerset County (N.J.) Library and administrator of the Somerset County Federated Library System, died March 3 following a vehicle accident. Kline earned a master’s degree in library administration from the University of Pittsburgh. She worked as a librarian in the Panama Canal Zone and as a civilian employee for the US Army. After traveling extensively throughout South and Central America, Kline returned to the US, and in 1968, taught at McConnellsburg Elementary School, then at Mount Aloysius College. From 1971 to 1999, she served as director of library services at the Somerset State Hospital and was hired by Somerset Country Library in February 1999.
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Connie Van Fleet, 62, professor at the School of Library and Information Studies at University of Oklahoma in Norman and author of multiple books on library science, died February 5 after a brief illness.
Van Fleet received an MLIS from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and PhD from Indiana University in Bloomington. Prior to joining the University of Oklahoma faculty, she was assistant professor at Louisiana State University and Kent (Ohio) State University.
She was actively involved in library leadership, serving on ALA’s Conference Planning Committee (2008–2009) and was elected to Council in 2012. Reference and User Services Association (RUSA) leadership positions included serving as cochair of the RQ Editorial Advisory Board (1991–1997), cochair of the Reference & User Services Association Quarterly Editorial Board (2000–2006), being an ex-officio member of RUSA’s Board of Directors (1991-1997 and 2000-2006), and RUSA CODES Readers’ Advisory Research and Trends Forum since 2009. She was also 2006–2007 president of the Association for Library and Information Science Education.
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Karen Veramay, 61, died February 11 of cancer. She served as manager of Jackson District Library’s Concord (Mich.) branch for 15 years.
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Janet Kunkle Bell, 87, former children’s librarian at Montgomery County (Md.) public libraries for more than 20 years, died January 26 of Alzheimer’s disease.
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Gabriele Sieg, 95, who retired in 2001 after serving two decades as head librarian at the German School in Potomac, Maryland, died January 12 after complications from a fall. Sieg immigrated to the United States in 1958 and became a US citizen in 1963. Before working at the German School, she was cataloguer and classifier for the Byzantine Studies program at Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection in Washington, D.C. She was past president of the American Goethe Society of Washington, D.C.
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Evelyn Johnson, 54, a librarian at Watauga County (N.C.) Public Library for more than 36 years, died January 14 of a heart attack.
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Isaac Ramirez, 65, library technical associate at Pleasant Valley State Prison libraries in Coalinga, California, died December 18 after a brief illness.
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Charlotte Wright, 79, former librarian at the Erie branch of the Monroe County (Ohio) Library System, died January 12 of cancer. She retired in 1998 after serving nearly 30 years with the library system.
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Joseph Branin, 65, director of the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology Library in Saudi Arabia, died on December 30 of cancer. Branin was director of Ohio State University Libraries from 2000-2009. A leader in the research library community, Branin served on the board of directors of the Association of Research Libraries and as editor of College & Research Libraries magazine.
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William DeJohn, 72, former director of Minitex at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis, died December 31 of pancreatic cancer. He retired in 2012 after 27 years at Minitex, a network of academic, public, state government, and special libraries. During his career, DeJohn also served as senior consultant, library cooperation, for the Illinois State Library–Library Development Group in Springfield, Illinois, and director of the Pacific Northwest Bibliographic Center at the University of Washington Libraries in Seattle. He was named Academic Librarian of the Year by the Minnesota Library Association in 2006.
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Charlesanna Fox, 102, former director of Randolph County (N.C.) Public Library, died November 14. She is credited with bringing seven Randolph County libraries together to form one countywide system. Fox also served as president of the North Carolina Library Association from 1953–1955.