Ruth L. Jackson

Ruth L. Jackson, M.A in LS, NY State Licensee as Supervising Reference Librarian and (widow) of Professor Emeritus Eugene B. Jackson, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Texas at Austin, died October 18, 2006. Mrs. Jackson was a long-term professional special librarian (1938 - 1970) and one who deferred her professional career to that of her husband. Ruth graduated from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis, IN, in 1933. She then moved with her widowed mother, Lillian P. Whitlock, to Urbana, IL. There Ruth earned her BA degree with honors in German and an MA in Library Science at the University of Illinois with a dissertation published by the American Library Association. While in school she worked at the Library's Circulation Desk using a then- new punched system. Her later assignment was with the University's Ricker Library of Architecture. She met her future husband, Jack Jackson, with the bicycling group of young librarians. They were married in August 1941. Their wedding trip to Chicago included a visit to Wrigley Field. Their next destination was a garage apartment in Tuscaloosa, AL where Jack was the Documents Librarian, Gorgas Memorial Library at the University of Alabama. A sudden change in University presidents led to a family relocation to Detroit where the famed Technology Department-of the Detroit Public Library was the focus. After Jack's call-up to Army medical training in February 1943 at Camp Barkeley, Texas, Ruth was immediately added to the DPL Cataloging Department. When Jack was transferred to the Advanced Mechanical Engineering " crash" program at Texas Tech College, Lubbock, Ruth was recruited to be THE Reference Librarian at Texas Tech. Jack was next transferred to the 12th Armored Division back at Camp Barkeley and Ruth again followed. When the Division went overseas, Ruth had a job waiting for her in the Order Department of the University of Illinois Library. She rejoined her mother in Urbana. Just after VE Day she was contacted by an ex-classmate who had talked the Commanding General at Air Materiel Command, Wright Field, Dayton, OH into offering Jack the post of Chief, Wright Field Reference Library. Before the suggestor could be discharged, Ruth gave him Jack's radio address in Austria. Jack accepted the Wright Field position when he was discharged from service. Prior to that Jack had completed Army Library School in central Paris and had loaded 35 bookmobiles in Belgium for the Army of Occupation. Ruth and Jack were reunited at Camp Grant, IL. With Jack having a position in Dayton, Ruth in turn became a member of Wright Field's Reference and Cataloging Departments, then next she became the Chief of the Aeromedical Library. Ruth and Jack were both invited to Washington, D. C. special library positions. WAVE officer/librarians were particularly impressed that Ruth persuaded Dayton's regional Civil Service office to permit persons with subject-matter degrees to index and abstract military-security classified materials. Ruth particularly enjoyed the Navy's BUShips and the Army's Medical Library colleagues. The National Advisory Committee was a close community and will be represented at Ruth's memorial service. Ruth's later professional services were as cataloger or reference librarian with the Legal Staff of Ford Motor Company in Detroit, General Motors Engineering Staff, Engineering Societies Library (New York), Mt. Pleasant (NY) Public Library, and Masterson Library (All Saints Church, Austin). The family will receive friends on Monday, October 23, 2006 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. at Weed-Corley-Fish Funeral Home. Funeral services will be held at All Saints Episcopal Church on Tuesday, October 24, 2006 at 10:30 a.m. Interment will be at Austin Memorial Park. Pallbearers will include Jack’s nephew, James M. Madison, Morgantown, WV. Memorials should be made to the Student Loan Fund, Graduate School of Library and Information Science, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712-1276. Obituary and guestbook online at wcfish.com.