NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 23 number 3 - Spring 2003

In Memoriam--Friends of the Library Life Members

By Mary Kate Keith, Friends of the Library

Daisy Lee Tate

Daisy Lee Tate died on January 12, 2003, in Sylva, North Carolina. She and her husband, the late William Lynn Tate, founded Power Transmission Systems, Inc., a Baltimore industrial distributor. She was co-owner, office manager, and treasurer; and she worked in the business until the death of her husband in 1993. In 1996 she moved to Tuckasegee, North Carolina. Two daughters, Alice Lee Cushing and Betty Lynn Kirwan, survive her. Betty Lynn Kirwan's husband, William J. Kirwan, is university librarian emeritus at Western Carolina University.

Daisy Lee Tate founded the William Lynn Tate Endowment at the NCSU Libraries in memory of her husband. The endowment supports the Design Library's collections. The bookplate for the endowment was designed by Alicia Kirwan, Daisy Lee Tate's granddaughter. Alicia Kirwan graduated from NC State's School of Design in 1995.

Marvin L. Speck

Marvin L. Speck passed away on January 22, 2003, at the Glenaire Retirement Community in Cary. Speck received his B.S. and M.S. degrees in bacteriology from the University of Maryland and his Ph.D. from Cornell University. He joined the NC State faculty in 1947 and retired in 1979 as the William Neal Reynolds Professor of Food Science and Microbiology. He helped to found the microbiology department at NC State, and one of his many professional accomplishments was developing Sweet Acidophilus milk. His wife, Jean, preceded him in death.

Both of the Specks were life members of the Friends and together established the Marvin and Jean Speck Library Endowment to support the Libraries' microbiology collection in all formats. He is survived by his daughters Linda Speck, Martha Huggins, and Susan Sexton.