A Special Note from Director Terry McDonald

The spring of 2022 will mark the 20th year since I first shifted my work at the University from a primarily faculty role to a primarily administrative role.

In the spring of 2002, I became the interim Dean of the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA); the next year I became permanent Dean and I served in that position through the 10-year limit the University has on such work. Immediately after completing my term as LSA Dean, I became the Director of the Bentley Historical Library in the fall of 2013.

I have looked forward to going to work every day during my 20-year service as an administrator, but I am convinced that the time has come to return to my faculty role. I will leave the directorship of the Bentley on August 31, 2022, and return to my faculty “tenure home,” the Department of History in LSA. The search for my replacement at the Bentley will soon be fully underway.

I was attracted to the Bentley because of an interest in the history of the University that began while I was Dean of LSA, and the history of the University is naturally entwined with that of the State of Michigan.

You share this interest, too, if you have enjoyed this newsletter, our wonderful events introducing collections, our new virtual programming in the “Making Michigan” series, or our award-winning magazine, Collections. You will soon have another venue for this kind of programming when the Detroit Observatory re-opens with its new addition.

But these public faces of our work are only the proverbial tip of the iceberg. Everything that makes public programming so successful is based on the massive effort to recruit, build, maintain, and describe the collections at the Bentley. Day in and day out, were are successful because of our commitment, first and foremost, to collect the primary materials of the past.

Your shared interest in our work, perhaps your donation of collections or financial support, even your research at the Bentley itself have meant the world to us, and I thank you.

My nine years at the Bentley have gone quickly because I have enjoyed so much meeting all of you and working with the enormously talented Bentley staff.

I will miss all of you.

With gratitude,

TERRY McDONALD
DIRECTOR, BENTLEY HISTORICAL LIBRARY

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