NCSU Libraries Focus Online
Volume 26 number 1 - Fall 2005
Friends of the Library--In Memoriam, Friends Life Members
Several life members passed away in recent months. Memorial contributions
may be made in honor of these distinguished individuals and sent
to the Friends of the Library, Campus Box 7111, Raleigh, N.C. 27695.
For information on the endowments established by these individuals,
call Jim Mulvey at (919) 515-3339.
In Memoriam--Helen Abel Brown
Helen Abel Brown, former head librarian of St. Mary’s College
in Raleigh from 1937 to 1971, died July 13, 2005, at the age of
103. Brown was born July 6, 1902, in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Her
beloved husband, Harlan C. Brown, former director of the D. H.
Hill Library at NC State, preceded her in death in 1982.
Brown had a distinguished career as an educator and librarian.
She earned a degree in library science at the University of Michigan
in 1935 before coming to St. Mary’s College.
Brown read and traveled extensively, was a life member of the
Friends, and also supported the Friends of the St. Mary’s
College Library, the North Carolina Zoological Society, the North
Carolina Museum of Art, and the NCSU College of Veterinary Medicine.
She established several memorials in her husband’s name,
including the Harlan C. and Helen A. Brown Endowment to
support the NCSU Libraries’ collections in all subjects and
formats. Brown also left a bequest to the Libraries to add to this
endowment.
She is survived by her devoted friend Elizabeth Libero and her
husband’s nieces and nephew, Karen Rowley and Stephanie and
Joel Anderson.
In Memoriam--Claire Simmons Allan
Claire Simmons Allan died at the age of seventy-six on June 9,
2005, in Rock Hill, South Carolina. She was a major benefactor
of the NCSU Libraries, having established one of its largest endowments,
the Claire Simmons Allan-Samson Memorial Archival Endowment,
named in part for her beloved dog. This endowment helped to build
the Tom Regan Animal Rights Archive in the library’s Special
Collections Research Center. This collection is now recognized
as the world’s premier collection pertaining to the animal
rights movement.
Born in Atlanta, Georgia, Allan was a daughter of Thomas C. and
Roselle M. Simmons. She attended Winthrop College in Rock Hill
and sang with the Charlotte Opera Association, performing the lead
in many operas, including Madame Butterfly, La Boheme,
and La Traviata. She studied in Vienna, Austria,
and with Jan Peerce of the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Allan
and her late husband, Bill Allan, once owned the Duke Mansion in
Charlotte and were responsible for its early 1980s restoration.
She was a passionate animal rights activist and chose to support
the NCSU Libraries out of respect and admiration for Tom Regan,
NCSU professor emeritus of philosophy.
She is survived by her brother, Mansfield Simmons; her sisters,
Roselle Byorick, Lillian Adickes, and Bonnie Plyler; a number of
nieces and nephews; and her beloved Shelties, Mimi and Tosca.
In Memoriam--Jack Levine
Professor Jack Levine died on June 9, 2005, at the age of ninety-seven.
He received a B.A. degree with honors in mathematics and physics
from UCLA in 1929, and he received a Ph.D. in mathematics from
Princeton University in 1934. From 1935 until his retirement in
1976, Levine taught mathematics at NC State, becoming a full professor
in 1946. He continued to teach part time until 1995.
In 1970 Levine was inducted into the Academy of Outstanding Teachers
at NCSU. His areas of research included tensor analysis, differential
geometry, theory of symmetric functions, algebraic cryptography,
and mathematical physics. Levine also published extensively, including
a definitive four-volume work on pattern word lists used in cryptography.
An avid reader, Levine donated well over 2,000 mystery books to
the NCSU Libraries. In the mid-1990s he also donated a collection
documenting his career as a cryptographic researcher and mathematics
professor at NC State.
He is survived by his sister-in-law, Minnie Levine, and several
nieces and nephews: Bill Burgin, Gloria Conover, Tom and Dan DeSilva,
Betty Donnell, Allen Gaer, Maurice Hattem, Michael Hattem, and
Marty and Robert Sik.
In Memoriam--Roy L. Lovvorn
Roy L. Lovvorn died in Raleigh on March 26, 2005, at the age of
ninety-five. He was preceded in death by his wife Virginia, who
died in June 2003.
Lovvorn was a graduate of Auburn University, the University of
Missouri, and the University of Wisconsin. In 1936 he became an
assistant professor in agronomy at NC State. In 1953 he became
director of instruction in the College of Agriculture and Life
Sciences. He was named director of the Agricultural Experiment
Station in 1955 and served in that capacity until 1969, when he
resigned to head the Cooperative State Research Service, U.S. Department
of Agriculture, in Washington, D.C.
He received many accolades and honors, including “Tar Heel
of the Week” in the News and Observer (Raleigh)
and an International Gamma Sigma Delta award for distinguished
service to agriculture. His life is chronicled in From a Log
Cabin to the Nation’s Capital. In 1994 the Lovvorns
established one of the Libraries’ first incubator endowments,
the Roy and Virginia Lovvorn Endowment.
Lovvorn is survived by three sons, Larry and wife Linda; Lee and
wife Nancy; and Brian and wife Cindy; as well as grandchildren,
great-grandchildren, and nephews, along with his faithful companion
and supporter, Mildred Fosnight.
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