Armstrong Endowment

Armstrong Endowment bookplate

The Armstrong Endowment, created by Professor Emeritus of Biochemistry Frank Armstrong and his wife Bev, provides support of the NCSU Libraries' biological sciences collections in all formats.

Frank Armstrong retired as a professor of biochemistry in 1990 but remains extremely active with the university. He devotes many hours each week as a volunteer for the Friends of the Library Book Sale and as an adviser to students interested in medical and health-related fields.

Any library staff member who knows Armstrong would agree that he is one of the nicest and friendliest people around. Much of the success of the annual Friends of the Library Book Sale can be credited to Armstrong, who for the past ten years has sorted well over 100,000 books. He has handled some interesting and strange materials and dealt with a lot of dust, mold, and bugs. He could very reliably be found every Tuesday downstairs in the ground floor "cage" sorting through boxes and boxes of old books. Both of the Armstrongs are extremely well read on a diverse number of topics, and this has served them well in their work with the Book Sale. Bev Armstrong worked side by side with her husband for many years in sorting books until moving on to other volunteer activities.

Despite the relocation of Book Sale material to the Satellite Storage Facility to accommodate the renovation of D. H. Hill Library's East Wing, Armstrong still finds time to stop and visit his numerous friends among the library staff. He also remains very active by serving as part of the team forming the Emeritus Advisers Program in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. This program is widely known for its great success in working with preprofessional students interested in pursuing careers in health-related fields. In 2005, he advised close to 100 students, many of whom will go on to graduate schools in medicine, dentistry, or optometry.

Armstrong's love of reading and his experience as the author of a widely used and extremely successful textbook on biochemistry led to his interest in the NCSU Libraries. He believes that a library is the heart of a university, that universities are often judged by their libraries, and that a topnotch library is a powerful incentive for attracting the best faculty members. This love of the library lead the Armstrongs to establish an Incubator Endowment in 1996, supporting the Libraries' collections. Through their thoughtful and ongoing contributions, the fund has reached full endowment level, giving the NCSU Libraries a permanent source of income in support of the collections in biological sciences. A specially designed bookplate is placed in each book purchased with income from the endowment.

Based on an original article by Jim Mulvey, which appeared in vol. 25, no. 3 of the NCSU Libraries Focus (Spring 2005).