Robert Vosper; Led Growth of UCLA Library
Robert Gordon Vosper, the venerated UCLA librarian who is credited with directing the growth and direction of the university’s volumes into what is acknowledged today as a world-class collection, has died.
A spokesman for the Westwood university said Vosper died at his Los Angeles home May 14. He was 80 and directed the school library from 1961 until his retirement in 1973.
UCLA Chancellor Charles E. Young said Vosper had been handpicked for the top library position by former Chancellor Franklin D. Murphy to succeed Lawrence Clark Powell, who established a national reputation for the UCLA library. Murphy knew Vosper from the University of Kansas when Murphy was chancellor there.
Young said Vosper took Powell’s legacy and developed it into one of the top five university research libraries in North America with more than 6 million volumes.
Vosper presided over the dedication of the university research library in 1966 and the addition of a second wing in 1971. For those accomplishments and others he was named UCLA Man of the Year in 1968.
Vosper is survived by his wife, Loraine, four children and eight grandchildren.
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