NCSU Libraries Focus Online

Volume 28 number 2 - Winter 2007

A Man of Peace and Conviction

By Anna Dahlstein, External Relations

During his twenty-year career as a library administrator at NC State, Cyrus Baldwin King did not settle into the lofty comfort of an "ivory tower." On the contrary, he worked tirelessly for social change, both within and beyond the university. Together with former library directors Harlan Brown and I. T. Littleton, King made the library a forerunner on campus in hiring African Americans in the 1960s. He served on the Faculty Senate's Good Neighbor Council, which urged off-campus landlords to stop discriminating against black students who needed apartments to rent. Through their church as well as numerous activist groups, Cy and Carolyn King have supported civil rights and other causes related to social justice and nonviolence, gaining widespread esteem for their dedication.

When his long-time friend and tennis partner, Raleigh attorney John K. Culbertson, made a generous gift to the NCSU Libraries in 1999 in his honor, King indicated that he would like the resulting Incubator Endowment to be designated for collections in the area of peace studies. Raised in a pacifist Quaker family, King had nonetheless chosen to serve in World War II after reaching the conclusion that armed conflict was inevitable. His father, E. S. King, was the secretary of NC State's Campus YMCA from the 1920s through the 1950s and ministered to returning veterans and their families in "Vetville" after the war. The younger King's own combat experience, which included the Battle of the Bulge, only strengthened his conviction that "it is essential that we prevent war from happening in the first place, by finding nonviolent ways to solve problems locally and internationally."

After many years of involvement with groups such as Veterans for Peace, Peace Action, Fellowship of Reconciliation, and the United Nations Association, King is now pleased to be able to draw attention to their missions through the Cyrus B. King Endowment, which he brought to full endowment status last year by means of a major gift. A number of friends and colleagues have also added contributions to the fund.

According to Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Susan K. Nutter, "It is particularly appropriate for a collections endowment to be associated with King in perpetuity, since he spent his career developing great collections." Although he earned an M.A. in history, rather than library science, King was invited by Littleton and Brown to join the NCSU Libraries in 1963 as head of Acquisitions after serving as an archivist in the North Carolina Office of Archives and History. With customary modesty he says, "They took a chance on me even though I wasn’t a 'real' librarian."

It turned out to be a gamble that paid off, as King contributed significantly to the institution's growth and overall improvement until retiring as assistant director for collection development and management in 1984. Never one to toot his own horn, King credits the achievements to Littleton, coadministrators Don Keener and Bill Lowe, and other coworkers too numerous to mention. As recently as spring 2007, he decided to acknowledge no fewer than twenty-two former library and campus colleagues by purchasing bricks in their honor or memory. Their names (see below) are now engraved on bricks installed in the walkway outside the main entrance to the D. H. Hill Library, providing permanent tributes to longtime library staff and to faculty members who served on the University Library Committee.

These individuals include Margaret Hunt, one of the first African Americans to be offered a professional position in the library in 1973. They also include numerous paraprofessionals whom King hired or worked with in Acquisitions, Binding, and Cataloging whose responsibilities in essential, behind-the-scenes technical services seldom enjoy public recognition.

For more information on supporting the NCSU Libraries by purchasing an engraved brick or establishing an endowment, please call Senior Development Officer Michael Gulley at (919) 513-7315, send an electronic-mail message to michael_gulley@ncsu.edu, or visit the Web at www.lib.ncsu.edu/support.

Cy King Brick Honorees

Bonnie Baker
Doretha Blalock
Mary Ellen Brady
Lillie Caster
Carol Clark
Luisa Gray
Lodwick C. Hartley
Walter High
Gloria Houser
Margaret Rogers Hunt
Maude Jones
Ruth Lane
Foy Lineberry
I. T. Littleton
Bob Pollard
Yvonne Sanders
Louise Stafford
Margaret Sugg
Bill and Jane Tucker
Nell Waltner
Ann Baker Ward
Brenda Wright