John E. Smith, UCI Librarian Emeritus, Dies
Private memorial services will be held today for John E. Smith, librarian emeritus at UC Irvine. Smith, 69, died Monday at his home in Santa Ana following a lengthy illness with cancer.
Smith was the founding librarian at UC Irvine. He joined the faculty in 1963, two years before the new campus opened for its first classes. He was a founder of UC Irvine’s Friends of the Library organization.
Prior to coming to UC Irvine, Smith had served as the first librarian of UCLA’s Institute of Industrial Relations, a position he held from 1946 to 1949. From 1949 to 1952, he was head of acquisitions for UCLA’s main library.
Smith was chief librarian for the city and county of Santa Barbara from 1952 to 1961, interrupted by one leave of absence in 1957 and 1958, when he served as a library adviser in Iran. He also served as a library adviser in Pakistan from 1961 to 1963.
He is survived by his wife Lucille; two sons, Michael of Santa Ana and Douglas of Santa Barbara; a daughter, Donna Lieberman of Grand Forks, N.D., and five grandchildren.
The family has requested that expressions of sympathy take the form of donations to UC Irvine’s Friends of the Library, P.O. Box 19577, Irvine, Calif. 92713.
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