Joseph Danton, 94; Headed Librarianship School at UC Berkeley
Joseph Periam “Perry” Danton, 94, professor emeritus and former dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Librarianship, died Nov. 12 in an Oakland hospital after a brief illness.
Danton served as dean from 1946 to 1961. When he retired in 1976, he received the Berkeley Citation, the university’s highest honor. In 1983, he received the Beta Phi Mu Award from the American Library Assn. for distinguished serviced to education for librarianship.
Born in Palo Alto, Danton spent his early years in Beijing, where his parents were educators. He graduated magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in German from Oberlin College in 1928.
He earned a bachelor’s degree in library science from Columbia University, a master’s in German from Williams College, and a doctorate from the University of Chicago. He was a Guggenheim fellow, a Carnegie fellow and a Fulbright research scholar in Germany and Vienna.
During World War II, he served in air combat intelligence for the Navy.
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