A Duke Libraries legacy of giving

By MICHELE LYNN

For nearly half a century, Mark Kearney A.M.’69 has donated money annually to the Duke University Libraries.

The longest-running library donor, Kearney said that his support reflects his gratitude for the help he received from library staff years ago as well as his appreciation of the continued importance of the Libraries.

“I believed in the work that I did at the library, and I have continued to believe in the work that the Libraries do. Contributing money there yearly made sense to me.” — Mark Kearney A.M.’69

As a history graduate student at Duke, Kearney held a part-time job at the Libraries. He supervised undergraduate students who helped move hundreds of thousands of books into what was then the new Perkins library building. In addition to supervising undergraduate employees, Kearney played a key role in creating a system to handle the flood of books students typically returned after the winter holidays.

Elvin Stroud, Kearney’s former supervisor (standing on desk), gives instructions to Duke fraternity members, who helped move approximately 1,250,000 books into Perkins Library after it was built in 1969 (Duke University Archives).

He married in spring 1972 and, after working on his dissertation for another year, Kearney decided to change careers and became an information technology specialist at the Social Security Administration. In his first few years there, Kearney maintained a loose connection with Duke. Then a notice in the Duke Libraries magazine about an upcoming Friends of the Library dinner caught his eye.

“By that time, my wife and I were comfortable, and I had a little extra money,” he said. “I noticed that it was $1,000 for a lifetime membership in the Friends and I thought, ‘Duke did right by me; I’ll repay the favor.’”

After making that first donation and attending the annual Friends dinner, Kearney decided to make both the donation and dinner attendance yearly habits. “I was glad contribute to something that wasn’t a necessity, and I was glad to help Duke Libraries,” he said.

In the late 1980s, Stroud again connected Kearney to the Libraries, nominating him to serve on the Friends of the Libraries governing board on which Kearney ultimately served three terms.

Kearney encourages others to support the Libraries and notes how well run they have been throughout their existence. “It’s important to support the Libraries because, in a broad sense, they embody the commitment of the Duke Endowment to education,” he said. “And giving is just a good thing to do that makes you feel good when you do it.”