The Friends of St. Paul (Minn.) Public Library has received an endowment of $1 million, its second-largest gift ever, from Ortha Robbins, a longtime staff member who died of cancer in 1999 at the age of 73. Robbins had no survivors and made the library her only beneficiary. Friends President Peter Peterson said in the September 7 Minneapolis Star Tribune that the only restriction she put on the gift was that it be applied wherever it was most needed.
“She was just an idol in terms of being the mentor to many of us,” Library Director Carole Williams told the Star Tribune. “and for so many years was the example of good public service.”
For more than half of her 41 years at SPPL, Robbins was head of the literature and social sciences department. She retired in 1986 as head of public services. The endowment is expected to provide about $55,000 in income for the library next year.
Posted September 11, 2000.