People

James A. Benson, 78, whose library career at St. John’s University in Queens, New York, spanned five decades, died June 27. He held the roles of dean of libraries, chief information officer, dean of information resources, vice provost of academic affairs, and professor of university libraries before retiring from St. John’s as dean emeritus in 2010. Benson also previously served on the teaching faculties of Rutgers University, University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, and University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and as librarian at Southwest Texas State University (now Texas State University) in San Marcos, Texas Southern University in Houston, and California State University, Chico. He volunteered with ALA’s Committee on Accreditation and was on the board of directors for the Association for Library and Information Science Education.

Missy Dillingham, 64, children’s services manager at John P. Holt Brentwood (Tenn.) Library for nearly 38 years, died August 1. She was an active member of the Tennessee Library Association (TLA), serving as head of the Children’s and Young Adult Services Round Table and cochairing the Conference Planning Committee. She received TLA’s 2011 Daniel A. Taylor Memorial Award for her contributions to children’s and young adult services and the 2020 Frances Neel Cheney Award for her contributions to librarianship through the encouragement of a love of books and reading. Dillingham began her career at Sullivan County (Tenn.) Public Library.

Judith Ann Schiff, 84, chief research archivist at Yale Library in New Haven, Connecticut, died July 11. She had worked at the library for more than 60 years and served as New Haven’s city historian since 2012. She collaborated with aviator Charles Lindbergh for more than a decade while assembling his archives and coedited his book Autobiography of Values, later coauthoring the biography Charles Lindbergh: An American Life. Schiff was also a founder or cofounder of several local and professional historical organizations, including New England Archivists, the Jewish Historical Society of Greater New Haven, and the Ethnic Heritage Center of New Haven. She was author of the Old Yale column in the Yale Alumni Magazine and in 2020 was awarded the Yale Medal, the Yale Alumni Association’s highest honor for individual service to the university.

Suzanne Sherwood Cane, 75, lower school librarian at the Lincoln School in Providence, Rhode Island, for 25 years until her 2000 retirement, died March 29. She previously served as librarian at the Inter-Community School outside of Zurich, Switzerland.

Janice B. Cronkhite, 87, head librarian at Weller Public Library in Waitsburg, Washington, until her 2012 retirement, died March 26. She also served as a librarian at Walla Walla (Wash.) Public Library and Lewiston (Idaho) City Library.