Page 8 - Alumni Horae: Vol. 93, No. 1 Fall 2012

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Ann Louise Locke, SPS librarian and friend to generations of students, faculty, and staff,
passed away on July 8, 2012, at age 81, in Portland, Maine, due to complications from ALS
(Lou Gehrig’s disease).
After joining the Sheldon Library staff in 1963, Ms. Locke served as assistant and
reference librarian until her retirement in 1995. According to her obituary in the Concord
Monitor, “Ann became not just librarian but also mother, coach, counselor, teacher, and
friend to the many students who passed through the halls of Sheldon Library.”
Shortly after learning of her death, Charles Scribner III ’69 came across a tribute he
wrote honoring Ms. Locke at her retirement. “I couldn’t have written it any better today,”
he said.
The following excerpts are taken from Scribner’s tribute:
Remembering Beloved Librarian
A Louise Locke
“St. A ”
It’s an impo ible task to sum up, concisely, so rich and resonant
a person as A Locke. She was one of the first adults I met as a
new student at SPS, always the first I would want to visit upon
returning to the Sch l from vacations, and later revisiting it as
an alumnus. Though she would howl at the comparison, she reminds
me in the most profound and simplest way of St. Teresa d’Avila in
her rare combination of soulfulne and co€on sense, of g dne
and practicality. I remember thinking as a new alum in the early
post-Wa„en era that A would be my choice for the next Rector.
In retrospect, I have no doubt that her role amongst the students
has b†n even more important, and far more personal, than any
Rector’s.
I saw a b k the other day ca‡ed Fire Your Shrink: if the world
had more A Lockes, a‡ the shrinks would be co‡ecting unemploy-
ment. Her sympathy, her laugh, her knack of saying the right thing
(whether to deflate a dangerously expanding ego or to oŽer encour-
agement), and her wi‡ingne to listen to any problem – these were
the ha‡marks of her sterling spirit.
I first got to know A in my role as “delivery boy” for my father,
who always sent me back to sch l with an extra duŽle bag of new
b ks for Sheldon Library. A made this t†nage me enger f†l
somehow responsible for the existence – not just the delivery –
of these b ks, a novel twist on the concept of in loco parentis.
I never joined a sch l debating club: A and Nick Dungan ’69 and
I had our own. I reca‡ endle , heated, vociferous arguments – any
subject would do. What they comprised I no longer reca‡, but one
denouement I do. We were standing in the glazed portico of Sheldon.
I had clearly lost the debate, no doubt about it. Whereupon A
exclaimed, “Scribner, you’re infuriating! You just don’t care
when you lose an argument; you go on to the next thing as though
it wasn’t worth noticing!” I sti‡ chuckle at this memory because,
I gue , it sums up a‡ the humor, candor, honesty, ope e , and
fondne of four years with A . She never gave a grade; but she
consistently set the highest standard. In a very real sense, she
brought co-education to SPS – years before the girls a„ived.
MEMORIES