Frederick G. Kilgour, distinguished research professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, got a 90th-birthday surprise January 6 when nonprofit library-services organization OCLC gave the library school a $100,000 endowment for an annual lecture to be named in his honor. Kilgour, who served as OCLC’s first president from 1967 to 1980, learned of the donation at a party thrown for him at UNC’s Wilson Library, during which he also received the school’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
UNC officials are counting the gift, which establishes the OCLC/Frederick G. Kilgour Lecture in Information and Library Science, toward the university’s $1.8-billion Carolina First private fundraising effort. Among the library luminaries turning out to reminisce about Kilgour’s achievements were OCLC President and CEO Jay Jordan, SILS Dean Joanne Marshall, and University Librarian Joe Hewitt.
The event also marked OCLC’s publication this year of Volume 3 of the Collected Papers of Frederick G. Kilgour.
Posted January 9, 2004.