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Photo courtesy
of the English Department
Librarian Grace M. Hunt poses with her dog,
Queen, in a 1940s photo.
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Librarian's gift preserves English Reading Room
BY MEG SULLIVAN
UCLA Today
She was a veteran librarian with a soft spot for Victorian literature
who found a way to ensure that future generations of Bruins will
be able to enjoy the quiet, inviting retreat she helped create and
maintain for two decades.
Upon her death last year at 99, Grace M. Hunt, founding librarian
of the English Reading Room, left $2.2 million for the operation
and upkeep of the cherished repository that now houses 30,000 books
and periodical volumes of and on British and American literature.
The gift is the single largest ever received by the 85-year-old
English department, which ranks as the nation’s largest, with
more than 1,700 students, faculty and staff.
“Just as Mrs. Hunt was an inspiration to the people she
touched during her tenure at the university, her gift to the English
department is an incredible inspiration to the faculty members and
scholars who enjoy the treasures of the reading room, which is known
by many as ‘the soul of the department,’ ” said
Eric J. Sundquist, acting dean of the humanities division.
Hunt appears to have inherited considerable wealth from her family,
which is believed to have been involved in the oil business.
A 1929 graduate of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, Hunt
joined UCLA in 1942 as an assistant to the university’s third
provost, Clarence Addison Dykstra. Following his death in 1950,
she moved to the Department of English, where she became the founding
librarian of the English Reading Room, then located in Royce Hall.
Currently in Rolfe Hall, the Grace M. Hunt Memorial English Reading
Room and English Library will move in 2006 to a new home in Kinsey
Hall, which will become the new humanities building.
Former students and colleagues remember Hunt graciously serving
cookies and coffee and joining in on literary discussions on a balcony
adjoining the reading room.
With a natural knack for matchmaking, she also enjoyed introducing
students to one another. At least two married couples met through
Hunt, by then a widow for many years.
A dedication of the room and library was recently held in conjunction
with the English department’s Ninth Annual Marathon Reading.
Befitting Hunt’s love of Victorian literature, students organized
a non-stop, 26-hour reading of George Eliot’s 1871-72 masterpiece
“Middlemarch.”
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