NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 24 number 3 - Spring 2004

By Jim Mulvey, Library Development

The NCSU Libraries is pleased to announce the naming of faculty study number 9216 on the northwest corner of the ninth floor of the D. H. Hill Library in memory of Robert T. Troxler, who passed away in August 2002. R. T. Troxler, a professor at NC State for forty-four years, taught in the School of Education's Department of Industrial Arts. After his death, the Libraries learned that he had left a bequest in the amount of $15,000 for his beloved D. H. Hill Library.

Troxler was a student at State College in the early 1940s before assuming a teaching position at NC State. This work became his life's passion. He was a lifelong learner before the term was invented and loved teaching at NC State until his retirement at the age of seventy in 1989. As a professor at NC State, Troxler taught classes on such subjects as drawing, design, woodworking, and ceramics, and he witnessed many changes at the university.

Troxler's family has described him as a joy to be around and as a very positive and thought-provoking person who touched the lives of many students and faculty members at NC State. Co-workers and students adored him. He enjoyed entertaining a crowd and was an excellent public speaker equipped with great stories and wonderful jokes. Troxler always wore his signature bow tie and looked for ways to add fun to his students' lives, such as cooking them breakfast on some type of unusual cooking equipment or ending a class with a party.

He lived a very simple life, enjoying his old house--complete with a slamming screen door--because it added a touch of country in the middle of Raleigh. Throughout his eighty-one years, he never locked his door and never worried about anyone taking his homemade furniture or few material possessions. He made his own pottery and had a little workshop where he worked on maintenance projects and unusual hobbies such as collecting antique underwear, building bat boxes, and growing gourds. He took pleasure in gardening and had wonderful fruit trees and unusual plants in his yard. His unique character led the Raleigh News and Observer to write stories on his various interests, activities, and situations.

Until a car accident in August 2002, Troxler remained very active and healthy. He had abundant energy and an enormous love of life. He respected nature and enjoyed walking nature trails with his three schnauzers. He traveled extensively, too, visiting such places as the Amazon River, Greece, and the Galapagos Islands.

The atmosphere of the D. H. Hill Library inspired Troxler, and he loved to do research. As a naturalist, he was especially interested in the propagation of species and spent much time studying the theory of evolution. In later years, he enjoyed writing in the library. He researched World War II and wrote a book about his family's involvement in the war. At the time of his death, he was working on another book about his family's life on the Haw River and growing up with ten brothers and sisters. His daughter, Risa Jarman, and his niece, Michele Gelston, have promised to finish the book and have it published.

The Troxler family has described him as a walking book of knowledge because of his continuous reading. The D. H. Hill Library was a place he admired and loved. He cherished reading and preached its importance and the value of continual learning to his four children and all others he influenced. His love for the library and learning took him there almost every day. At the time of his death in August 2002, he still regularly went to his faculty study.

Troxler's monument in Raleigh's Oakwood Cemetery features one of his signature bow ties and an inscription taken from one of his homemade business cards that describes him as a professor, landlord, writer, humorist, carpenter, furniture builder, plumber, public speaker, product consultant, stonemason, gardener, naturalist, gourd specialist, and antique underwear collector. North Carolina State University will miss this unique character, and the Libraries is honored to play a part in remembering R. T. Troxler.

For information about supporting the NCSU Libraries or about the opportunity to name a faculty study, please contact Jim Mulvey at (919) 515-3339 or by sending an electronic-mail message to jim_mulvey@ncsu.edu.