Barbara and Hayne Palmour III Library Endowment

(Left to right) Barbara and Hayne Palmour
with Franklin Hart, former president of the
Friends of the Library Board of Directors

Hayne and Barbara Palmour of Raleigh, North Carolina, established the Barbara and Hayne Palmour III Library Endowment with the NCSU Libraries in 2001. The fund produces income supporting library collections, with a preference toward resources in the fields of materials science and engineering. "My relationship with the Libraries," Hayne Palmour says, "goes back to my early days at NC State. I spent many days in D. H. Hill looking up references for a project when I was a graduate student. Since then, I have sent many a graduate student there to look things up. The library has been a part of my involvement in teaching and research all along."

Palmour Endowment bookplate

Hayne Palmour III, a native of Gainesville, Georgia, holds B.S. and M.S. degrees in ceramic engineering from Georgia Tech and a Ph.D. in ceramic engineering from North Carolina State University. He retired from NC State as professor of ceramic engineering in 1994 after thirty-seven years with the university. His wife Barbara, a native of Atlanta, Georgia, graduated from Agnes Scott College. She is a retired preschool teacher. The Palmours' generous gift to NC State also included founding the Barbara G. and Hayne Palmour III Gallery Endowment benefiting NC State's Gallery of Art & Design.

The Palmours' concern for the library developed during the collections crisis of the late 1980s and early 1990s. Hayne Palmour explains, "I was on the Faculty Senate when the library was in deep trouble. The Faculty Senate took on the library as an issue and asked then-Provost Frank Hart to do a report on the state of the library. Hart took on the issue as well and did a lot for the NCSU Libraries." Barbara Palmour shares her husband's concern for libraries, noting "The library is the hub of the university. The whole university is judged by the quality of its library."

Hayne Palmour III

The Friends of the Library has also benefited from Hayne Palmour's interest in the library. He joined the Friends' board in 1998 and played a key role in developing its strategic plan. His service on the board and its Development Council helped convince him that a library endowment gift is an important investment in NC State's future: "Our gift resulted from the confluence of several things. First, the gratitude I feel for the institution that nurtured me. Second, my recognition of the library's needs. "

After establishing the endowment, Palmour continued his volunteer efforts to advance the library and its mission. He adds, "In our self-study the Friends' board described itself as an advocacy group acting on behalf of the Libraries. We made the commitment to know enough about the library's needs to be effective advocates for it. We also indicated that we are willing to back this commitment up with our own financial support."

Hayne and Barbara Palmour fulfilled this commitment brilliantly by establishing the Barbara and Hayne Palmour III Library Endowment. It will help to build outstanding collections that serve NC State University now and in the future.

Based on an original article by Tony Reevy, which appeared in vol. 21, no. 2 of the NCSU Libraries Focus (Winter 2001).