Nan Stoddard
NANCY STODDARD WAS POST-DISPATCH'S CHIEF LIBRARIAN
St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)
Edition:
FIVE STAR LIFT
Nancy Elaine Williams Stoddard expressed her passion for the news of the
day in her everyday life, from the hours she spent archiving the daily
Post-Dispatch as chief librarian, to a license plate that read simply
"NEWS" for both her initials and her job.
Mrs. Stoddard died Tuesday (July 10, 2001) of complications from a form
of blood cancer at Mary Mount Manor in Eureka. She was 69 and had lived in
Manchester.
A native of Erie, Pa., Mrs. Stoddard attended Pennsylvania State College,
now Pennsylvania State University. She also studied at the University of
Missouri at St. Louis and the University of Missouri at Columbia.
Mrs. Stoddard began her career as an assistant librarian at the Miami
Herald in 1960. After six years there, she became the first librarian at the
Gannett Corp.'s Today (now Florida Today) newspaper in Cocoa, Fla.
Mrs. Stoddard left Florida to join the Post-Dispatch in 1970 as an
assistant research librarian in the reference department. About three years
later, she became the chief librarian and oversaw the change-over from a paper
filing system to an electronic library of the newspaper's archives.
She left the reference department in 1985, moving to the newspaper's old
Calendar section and later, the Food section. She retired in 1995.
Mrs. Stoddard was a former longtime member and past president of the St.
Louis chapter of the Special Libraries Association.
Mrs. Stoddard was also active in the St. Louis chapters of The Dream
Factory and Make-A-Wish Foundation, organizations that make dreams come true for
seriously ill children. She was also past president of the American Legion
Walter LePere Auxiliary Post 208 of Manchester.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Sunday at Schrader Funeral
Home, 14960 Manchester Road, Ballwin. Interment will be private.
Among her survivors are her husband, Paul Warren Stoddard of Eureka; a
son, Rick Williams of Denver; her mother, Elsie Palmer Newsham of Erie, Pa.; two
brothers, Donald Grappy and Terry Grappy, both of Erie, Pa.; and three
granddaughters.
In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to the Make-A-Wish
Foundation, 1324 North Rock Hill Road, St. Louis, Mo. 63124.
To: The NewsLib mailing list
Sent: Thursday, November 08, 2001 7:09 PM
Subject: [newslib] Re: Joe Mehr
.
. . . I was also saddened to hear only this week of Nan Stoddard's
From
saabjerg@shaw.ca Fri Apr 26 10:27:24 2002
Date:
Wed, 14 Nov 2001 14:10:23 -0800
From:
Bent & Shirley <saabjerg@shaw.ca>
To:
Barbara Semonche <semonch@metalab.unc.edu>
Subject:
Nan
.
. . . Nancy Williams, as I first knew her, along with Leslie Parsley and Sandy
Hall, were the true fun loving gals in those early years. (Another separate
twosome to whom that applied were Donna Scheeder and her wonderful friend
from DC- one of our Kwapils - Cathy Jones.)
Nancy
had such a wonderful laugh, sparkle and mischievous wit - she was always a
pleasure to be around. But there was another side to Nan - the hard worker
who cared about the division and did so many good things for it in her own
"hide your light behind a bushel" way - I think not only of how she
took over the Archives but also the wonderful, was it 60th, anniversary
publication she produced. I think of her compassion (she always kept us
informed of the progress of our dear Agnes Henebry) and especially I think of
her bravery - coming to Minneapolis when she was gravely ill to spend a few days
with people who were important to her. I recall the day Bent and I left
there - first sharing a quiet lunch and a beer – she made no bones about how
serious her illness was but none of that erased her smile, her laugh, her sparkle,
and her appreciation and love for good friends and colleagues. It was a special
time – unfortunately followed only by ever decreasing email visits.
Shirley
From:
Lou Thomas <loustraw4@juno.com>
To: saabjerg@shaw.ca
Cc: bnewcombe@icg.org, james.s.scofield@starmail.com, homermartin@att.net,
Subject: joe, nan, et al
Shirley:
.
. . . I would like to add to Nan's that she took over the archives when Agnes
Henebry felt that she should part with her collection.
Agnes told me she had boxes and boxes under her bed with all the News
Division's history and she wanted it preserved. It was Nan who took the responsibility of taking them over
without offending Agnes. The News
Division was a big part of her life and it was heartbreaking for Agnes to give
up her collection. The job of
organizing and keeping the archives was quite an undertaking for Nan. . . .
Lou
From: Leslie <lparsley@ix.netcom.com>
To: semonch@metalab.unc.edu
Subject: Nancy Stoddard
Barbara:
Nancy was a spirited inspiration to all of us. She would bounce into the news suite at SLA full of vitality and brimming with ideas. She
brought much needed and appreciated insight to the business meetings. Most of all, she brought humor and heart to all of us.
Some people get accolades and awards. Others just give. Nancy did the
latter with gusto. After all these years, I can still see her wide twinkling eyes and mischievous grin, hear her wise cracks and succinct
observations. Dear Nancy, you were one of a kind.
Leslie Parsley
Date: Mon, 13 May 2002 18:48:09 -0700
From: shirley mooney aabjerg <saabjerg@shaw.ca>
To: Barbara Semonche <semonch@metalab.unc.edu>
Subject: Fwd: RE: Nan Stoddard's web page
Hey Barb...can you plug in Andy Ippolito's last two sentences about Nan?
Shirley,
Thank you for sending me Nan's web page. It is a fitting tribute for a
wonderful person. She had a joy about her that was infectious. I have sweet
memories of her and miss her passing.
Andy Ippolito