The Passing of Robert Volz

To the Williams community,

I write today to share sad news of a retired staff member who has passed away. Robert “Bob” Volz, longtime custodian of the Chapin Library who served from 1977 until his retirement in June 2015, died on May 30, in Chicago, Ill. He was 80.

Bob served as the fifth custodian of the Chapin. Retiring after 38 years, he was also the longest serving. A caring steward, he once wrote that “the primary stated purpose for the Chapin Library is the enhancement of education and scholarship at Williams through the unique experience that original source material can provide. The Custodian’s responsibility is to make those possibilities real.”

During his tenure, the library’s collection tripled in size, including the acquisition of several valuable additions. Among those are the Daniel Chester French archives; the Heritage Collection, a major resource for the study of African-American and International Black culture; and extensive holdings from the Civil War and Reconstruction. He also acquired an original copy of the Declaration of Independence—one of the 26 examples printed on Independence Day and one of the only known copies to belong to a signer of the Declaration.

Bob also made the Chapin an important resource for raising awareness of key global issues. In 1998, he organized a major exhibition, “Facing Facts: Posters and Prevention in the Age of AIDS,” which featured 120 items that covered aspects of the AIDS crisis that gripped the world beginning in the early 1980s.

Before arriving at Williams, Bob worked at several libraries, including at Bowdoin and at the University of Rochester, where he was head of the Department of Rare Books. He received a bachelor’s from Marquette University in 1962 and a master’s in library science from the University of Wisconsin in 1963.

Throughout his life, Bob’s passion for rare books never diminished. He traveled extensively in Europe visiting rare book libraries for both the Chapin and his own collection. An avid classical music aficionado, Bob retained his membership in the Chicago Symphony, in the city he always loved.

Our thoughts are with Bob’s family and many friends.

Sincerely,

Tiku Majumder
Interim President