By Michele Lynn
For nearly half a century, Mark Kearney T’70 has donated money annually to the Duke University Libraries. The longest-running library donor, Kearney said that his support reflects his gratitude for the help he received from library staff years ago as well as his appreciation of the continued importance of the Libraries.
“I believed in the work that I did at the library, and I have continued to believe in the work that the Libraries do,” said Kearney. “Contributing money there yearly made sense to me.”
Kearney says that while the Duke Libraries didn’t “save him from starvation” during his time as a history graduate student, they did keep him from “living in an apartment where roach bait would have been a monthly item on my shopping list.” Kearney held a part-time job at the Libraries during his studies when his fellowship permitted it. But as time progressed, a perfect storm of challenges, including the Vietnam War draft and the Soviet invasion of Prague, became obstacles in his educational and career paths.
Along came Elvin Stroud, Kearney’s supervisor in his part-time job who eventually became Duke’s University Librarian. Knowing that Kearney needed a job to support himself while working on his doctorate, Stroud invited him to return to the stacks full-time.
Soon after Perkins Library was built, Kearney supervised undergraduate students who helped move hundreds of thousands of books into the new library building. In addition to supervising undergraduate employees, Kearney played a key role in creating a system to handle the flood of books students typically returned after the winter holidays.
He married in spring 1972 and, after working on his dissertation for another year, Kearney decided to change careers and became an information technology specialist at the Social Security Administration. In his first few years there, Kearney maintained a loose connection with Duke. Then a notice in the Duke Libraries magazine about an upcoming Friends of the Library dinner caught his eye.
“By that time, my wife and I were comfortable, and I had a little extra money,” he said. “I noticed that it was $1,000 for a lifetime membership in the Friends and I thought, ‘Duke did right by me; I’ll repay the favor.’”
After making that first donation and attending the annual Friends dinner, Kearney decided to make both the donation and dinner attendance yearly habits. “I was glad contribute to something that wasn’t a necessity, and I was glad to help Duke Libraries,” he said.
In the late 1980s, Stroud again connected Kearney to the Libraries, nominating him to serve on the Friends of the Libraries governing board on which Kearney ultimately served three terms.
Kearney encourages others to support the Libraries and notes how well run they have been throughout their existence. “It’s important to support the Libraries because, in a broad sense, they embody the commitment of the Duke Endowment to education,” he said. “And giving is just a good thing to do that makes you feel good when you do it.”