Obituaries
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Jack Ellenberger, 90, former president of the American Association of Law Libraries (AALL), died November 21. He started his career as law librarian at the US Department of Health before working at several law firms. He received AALL’s Marian Gould Gallagher Distinguished Service Award in 1994 and is a member of the AALL Hall of Fame.
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Mena Hedin, 83, librarian at Marlborough (Mass.) Public Library until retiring in 2012, died January 14. She started as a page and worked for the library for 58 years.
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Margaret Howard, 96, retired librarian at Cherokee Lane and Seabrook elementary schools in Prince George’s County, Maryland, died January 10.
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Leonard Kniffel, 73, editor in chief of American Libraries (AL) from 1996 until his 2011 retirement, died March 19. He started his library career as a page at Detroit Public Library in 1970 and joined AL in 1988. Kniffel wrote several books, including A Polish Son in the Motherland and Busia: School Days on the Farm with My Polish Grandmother. After retirement, he dedicated much of his attention to Polish librarians and the Polish diaspora, becoming executive director of the Polish American Librarians Association in 2014.
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Sydelle Fay “Sydie” Freidlin Marcus, 78, a retired school librarian, died February 27. She worked most recently at Yorktown (Va.) Elementary School but previously served as librarian at Mount Vernon High School in Alexandria and as head research librarian for Arlington Public Schools.
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Margaret Carty, 82, executive director of the Maryland Library Association (MLA) since 1999, died February 4. During her tenure, she revitalized MLA, building a sustainable conference and forging partnerships with NASA and the Delaware Library Association. Carty was recognized as one of Maryland’s Top 100 Women in 2013 by the Maryland Daily Record.
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Loretta “Lolly” Eggers, 91, died February 26. She worked at Iowa City (Iowa) Public Library from 1969–1994, including 20 years as director. During her tenure, Eggers helped to modernize the library, and in 1980 it became one of the first in the country to have computerized checkout and catalog systems. She wrote the books A Century of Stories: The History of the Iowa City Public Library, 1896–1997 and Iowa City’s Irving Weber: A Biography.
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Paula Montgomery, 74, a school librarian, educator, publisher, and speaker, died March 3. She began her library career at Montgomery County (Md.) Public Schools before serving as chief of school library media services at the Maryland State Department of Education from 1979 to 1988. In 1989 she became assistant professor at Western Maryland College. She also published School Library Media Activities Monthly, a magazine of activities for school librarians to use in their lessons, and Crinkles, a children’s magazine with activities to help develop curiosity and research skills.
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Margaret Shaffer, 80, a librarian for 35 years and director of Terrebonne Parish (La.) Library from 1973 to 1995, died January 30.
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Regina Slezak, 76, former director of Newport (R.I.) Public Library, died December 11. Slezak had also served as children’s librarian at Ridgewood (N.J.) Public Library, coordinator of East Providence (R.I.) Public Library, and director of Fall River (Mass.) Public Library. In the 1970s, she taught library science at the Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth and helped to develop Sydney’s public library system.
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Marie Louise Sorensen, 86, a longtime librarian at DeKalb (Ill.) Community School District, died December 16.
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Sheila Kirven, education services librarian and associate professor at Congressman Frank J. Guarini Library at New Jersey City University, died January 9. She held positions at several libraries in New York and New Jersey.