Bookworms

Friends of Reeves Library, a new support group, opened its guest book in the Rare Books Room of Reeves Library on December 10. Formation of the Friends group coincides with the 35th anniversary of the library’s opening and the 10th of completion of its wings.

The group’s initial event included a short ceremony to thank Robert P. L. Frick ’49 for his longtime support and to dedicate the bookcase he commissioned from Duckloe Brothers for the Rare Books Room.

He gave the case, which matches one he donated several years ago, in honor of his friend and fellow student, the late Rev. Henry L. Williams ’48, the first librarian of Reeves. Frick’s other gifts have included a copy of the 1746 printing of Orbis Sensualium Pictus by Comenius.

Robert Packer Linderman Frick, as you can see from his two middle names, is part of a family that has far more connections to Lehigh University (Packer Chapel, Linderman Library) than to Moravian. “I went to Moravian to be different,” he said.

In addition to giving to the library and commissioning and donating the institutional mace (which was carried for the first time in his Commencement procession in 1949), Frick served on the commission that oversaw the merger of the men’s and women’s colleges in 1953. He also worked for the Admissions Office, and he can be seen in an archival photograph hefting a shovelful of earth for the ground-breaking of Johnston Hall.

The board of Friends of the Library includes Rita Berk, director of Reeves Library; Janet Loengard, professor of history; Dana Dunn, professor of psychology; Glenn Asquith, professor of pastoral theology on the Van and Katherine Merle-Smith Fund, Moravian Theological Seminary; Doris Schatt-schneider, professor emerita of mathematics; Joan Lardner Paul, director of major gifts; Paul Acampora, director of development; John Weeren, college archivist; Robert Frick; and Barbara Martin Stout ’87 (M.A.P.C.), co-chair of the Music Alliance and daughter of Bethlehem Steel’s former chairman, Edmund Martin.

For information on joining Friends of the Library, call Rita Berk, 610 861-1540 or email her at berkr@moravian.edu.

Robert P. L. Frick ’49 chats with psychology professor Dana Dunn at the reception announcing the formation of the Friends of the Library.