Ruth Anne Evans, former associate librarian and unofficial College historian, died Feb. 2 in Schenectady's Ellis Hospital after a long illness. She was seventy-six.
Professor Evans, a native of Schenectady, first worked in the College's library during the summers of 1944 and 1945, when she was a student at Smith College. After graduation, she returned as a general assistant. Encouraged by Helmer Webb, the librarian, she went to Columbia University in 1947, earning a B.S. from the School of Library Science. After working briefly at Colgate University, she joined the library staff at Union in 1952.
In her years at Union, she held a variety of posts — cataloguer, reference librarian, acquisitions librarian, circulation librarian, assistant librarian, and, on occasion, acting library director. To many students and faculty, however, she was best known as the principal reference for anyone wanting to know anything about Union's history. As a colleague once said, “If Ruth Anne doesn't know it, it didn't happen.” If a project demanded historical knowledge, she was involved, from helping students design Fitzhugh Ludlow Day festivities in honor of a nineteenth-century alumnus to researching the original design of the chandelier in the president's house.
At her formal retirement in 1989, Ann Seemann, then the librarian, said, “She serves as campus historian, albeit informally, with an acute sense of humor and almost total recall. Her wisdom and her wit abound in anecdote and fact.” After her retirement, she continued to come into the library on an almost daily basis to help with a variety of projects and to continue her lifelong pattern of mentoring younger librarians.
Professor Evans was a member of the Schenectady Historical Society, where she held several positions; the American Library Association; the American Association of University Professors; the American Association of University Women; Phi Beta Kappa; the Capital District Library Council; and the New York Library Association. She was a volunteer for the Literacy Volunteers of Schenectady and was a member of St. John the Evangelist Church and its Rosary Society.
Her campus service included membership on the Conservatorial Committee, the Phi Beta Kappa nominating committee, and the committees to choose student candidates for Watson Fellowships and the St. Andrews Exchange. She received the Faculty Meritorious Service Award from the Alumni Council in 1975. She also was elected to honorary membership in the Delphics, a student service organization, in recognition of her many contributions over the years to student life on campus.
Survivors include a niece, Madelaine Ann Estabrook, of Waltham, Mass.; and three nephews, Carl G. Estabrook, Jr., of Champaign, Ill.; Joseph E. Estabrook, of Centereville, Va.; and David M. Estabrook, of Arlington, Va. Contributions in her honor may be made to the Literacy Volunteers or the Schenectady Historical Society.