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Library Champion Dan Lacy Dies at 87

Dan Lacy, managing director of the American Book Publishers Council from 1953 to 1966 and later senior vice-president at publisher McGraw-Hill, died of pneumonia in Durham, North Carolina, after several weeks in the hospital.

Lacy’s accomplishments took place on many different fronts over the years. During World War II, he was director of the National Committee on Conservation of Cultural Resources, established to protect libraries and museums from enemy attack. In 1951, he was detailed to the Department of State where he received the Superior Service Medal for his role in creating Franklin Books, an organization that worked with publishers in Third World countries to publish translations of American books.

At the ABPC, Lacy played lead roles in adopting the Freedom to Read Statement, creating the National Book Committee and National Library Week, ratifying the Universal Copyright Convention, and revising American copyright law. While at McGraw-Hill, Lacy was appointed by President Johnson to the National Advisory Commission on Libraries, and by President Ford to the National Commission on New Technological Uses of Copyrighted Works.

Longtime friend and library activist Virginia Mathews told American Libraries, “He was the person who taught me to have a vision of libraries that encompasses the whole world. In everything he did, he placed libraries in a context of importance to all of society.”

Posted April 23, 2001.

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