1933 – 2018
Maxine Kennedy Hanke passed away on Saturday, August 25, 2018. She is survived by her two sons, Charles Willian Hanke and John Christian Hanke, and three granddaughters, Krista, Marina and Maya. Maxine’s husband of 54 years, Charles Warren Hanke, passed away in 2017. They were married on June 6, 1962 in Washington, DC.
Maxine was born on May 2, 1933 in St. Petersburg, FL. She was raised in Portland, OR and attended the University of Portland, receiving a Bachelor’s Degree in 1955. She earned a Master’s Degree from the University of Washington in 1958, and completed some work towards a PhD in Public Administration at American University in Washington, DC. She moved to the Washington, DC area in 1958 to pursue a career in medical librarianship with an Internship at the National Library of Medicine (NLM). She continued to work at NLM in both the intramural and extramural programs from 1959 – 1967. From 1968 – 1971 she resided in New Haven, CT while her husband attended Yale Law School, returning to work at NLM from 1974 -1983 as the Head of the Reference Section and then Director of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Medical Library Program. In 1983 she was appointed Deputy Chief of the Library Branch at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD where she worked until her retirement in 1994.
During her distinguished career, she authored numerous articles published in professional journals, and served many major professional committee assignments in the Medical Library Association, Maryland Association of Health Sciences Libraries, American Library Association and others. During her 28 years of federal service and medical librarianship, she received numerous honors, awards, and fellowships, including selection for full membership in Beta Phi Mu, the International Library Science Honor Society. She was often recognized for fostering and encouraging resource sharing among libraries in the mid-Atlantic region and for mentoring and helping develop the careers of many promising young librarians.
After retiring from federal government service in June 1994, she worked for several years as a Volunteer for the Presidential Correspondence Team at The White House during U.S. President’s George W. Bush’s administration, covering telephones and responding to thousands of letters and emails received each year. Maxine was an avid reader, a skilled seamstress, an excellent cook and an ardent fan of classical music, especially opera. She enjoyed foreign travel with friends and caring for the family pets.
A Memorial Service will be held Saturday, September 1, at 3:00 pm at the Joseph Gawler’s Sons funeral facility at 5130 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Washington DC 20016. Memorial contributions in Maxine Hanke’s memory (in lieu of flowers) may be made to A Wider Circle for Community Service, mailing address: 4808 Moorland Lane #802, Bethesda, MD 20814. www.awidercircle.org. 301-608-3504.
SHARE OBITUARY
v.1.8.18