Claudia J. Morner

PORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Claudia J. Morner, 72, Emerita Dean of the University of New Hampshire Library, died Saturday, Oct. 27, 2018 of cardiac arrest. She was born in Ladysmith, Wisc., to John D. Morner and Anne Pearson Morner, and was educated at St. Olaf College, the University of Minneota (B.A.), Simmons College (MSLS), and Boston College (PhD).

Before coming to UNH, Claudia served as Director of the Osterville, Mass., Free Library, Associate Librarian at Cape Cod Community College, and University Librarian at Boston College.

During her 17-year tenure as dean of the University Library at the University of New Hampshire, she directed technological and building enhancements, including a $19 million renovation project for Dimond Library which added 500 seats, 350 computer stations, a new map room, a data center, and $400,000 worth of electronic resources. Prior to that renovation, Dimond was an old and tired building, its most memorable feature the orange and gold striped carpeting. No online data bases, no electronic academic and professional journals, and no internet connectivity. The library won a number of excellence awards, including the Library Building Award from the American Institute of Architects.

Claudia was joyous and ever hopeful, qualities that helped her bring out the best in others. She was also a person who liked to talk things over.

In her professional life, this meant that she worked tirelessly for consensus-in planning a library renovation to fit everyone's needs, in spearheading the UNH effort to become a member of the elite Boston Library Consortium, and later, in presiding over the Consortium's efforts to help individual libraries recognize and share their individual strengths.

Claudia was also a visionary, often in the sense that she readily recognized and supported the vision of others. This made it possible for her to lead the UNH library into the digital age. Also, In her teaching at Simmons College, she quite early embraced, improved, and promoted new strategies in on-line instruction. Her course offerings included library architecture and international librarianship.

After she retired from UNH in 2012, Claudia continued teaching and co-authored the ninth edition of Library and Information Center Management with Barbara Moran. She remained an active member of the American Library Association, continued to serve on committees of the New Hampshire State Library, and consulted, and advised libraries around the world from Mongolia to Korea.

Some of her consulting was carried on with her husband Leonard S. Jones (Lennie), the love of her life, whom she met in the 60s while the two young political activists were campaigning for Eugene McCarthy. They were together for nearly five decades and were both helpmates and playmates, enjoying sailing up the Maine coast, bringing up young puppies, and most of all getting together with friends.

People were drawn to Claudia, in Puerto Rico, where they spent half the year, as well as in New Hampshire. Together, she and Lennie took people in, from interns working on a political campaign to Mongolian or Korean students alone on a holiday. They became family.

Claudia is survived by her husband Leonard S. Jones and her two sisters Kathleen Morner and Madelon Brown, both of Albuquerque, N.M., and her little Havanese dog Dory.

A celebration of her life will be held in December. Contributions in her memory can be made to continuing relief efforts in Puerto Rico, c/o Iglesia Monte Sion, PO Box 971, Guaynabo, PR 00970.