Laurel Grotzinger (1935-2018) | University of Illinois Archives

Name: Laurel Grotzinger (1935-2018)

Historical Note: Laurel Grotzinger was born in Truman, Minnesota to Edward Ferdinand and Marian Gertrude (Greeley) in 1935. In 1957, she received a B.A. in English with minors in French and History from Carleton College (Northfield, Minnesota). She would go on to receive her M.S. and PhD in Library Science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1958 and 1964 respectively. In 1964, she started her 51-year tenure at Western Michigan University (Kalamazoo, Michigan) as an Assistant Professor. Grotzinger served as the Assistant Director of the School of Library Science from 1966-1972. In 1979, she became the Dean of the Graduate College, making her the first woman at Western Michigan University to become a Dean. Grotzinger served in many roles at Western Michigan University, including Chief Research Officer and Dean of the School of Library and Information Science. When she retired from Western Michigan in 2015, she had become a Professor Emeritus of University Libraries. Grotzinger was a member of many professional organizations, including Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, Delta Kappa Gamma, the American Library Association, and the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters. She also had an extensive body of research, including multiple presentations and publications related to the field of Library and Information Science. Her work and scholarly contributions were acknowledged by the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign when she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Graduate School of Library and Information Science in 1994. She passed away in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 2018.