Longtime library science professor

Educator retired from Dominican University after a 37-year career

By Joan Giangrasse Kates | Special to the Chicago Tribune
October 10, 2008
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-hed-brace-d-10-oct...

The first time Dr. William Brace met his future wife, she darn near
killed him.

As the story goes, the two were graduate students at the University of
Chicago in the early 1950s, when one day they found themselves sitting
next to each other in class.

"That was back in the day when you'd light up a cigarette right at your
desk," recalled his wife of 51 years, Pam. "I was smoking Pall Malls,
which he was deathly allergic to, and he began sneezing and coughing
uncontrollably. Later he told people, 'She nearly asphyxiated me, but it
at least got me to notice her.' "

That same sense of humor, former colleagues say, helped Dr. Brace
connect with almost four decades worth of students as a professor of
library and information science at Rosary College, now Dominican
University in River Forest.

"He was a wonderful teacher, very bright and witty," said close friend
Bill Crowley, a longtime professor at Dominican University. "He was
extraordinarily knowledgeable in so many subjects, whether it be
science, history or any of the arts."

Dr. Brace, 79, a professor emeritus at Dominican University's Graduate
School of Library and Information Science, died Wednesday, Oct. 1, in
West Suburban Hospital in Oak Park, apparently of a heart attack.

Born in Cortez, Colo., Dr. Brace grew up on Navajo reservations in
Colorado, New Mexico and Utah, where his father taught vocational
education. He received a bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University
in Utah in 1951, then served as a clerk in the Army from 1951 to 1953.

In the early 1950s, Dr. Brace moved to Chicago and five years later
graduated from the Graduate Library School of the University of Chicago.
He later received a PhD from the School of Library and Information
Science at Case Western Reserve University.

In 1955, Dr. Brace returned to BYU to serve as a documents librarian,
and then two years later to Chicago, where he worked as an assistant
librarian for Chicago Teachers College-North. In 1961 he accepted a
teaching position at Florida State University in Tallahassee. That same
year, he joined what was then Rosary College's department of library
science, as a full-time professor.

"We spent only about a year in the South, before we both started missing
Chicago and began looking for a way to come home," his wife said.

Dr. Brace retired from Dominican University in 1998, after more than 37
years of teaching.

Known for his engaging lectures and lively class discussions, Dr. Brace
was passionate about his work and dedicated to his students, former
colleagues said.

"He'd wake up each morning all charged up and ready to go," said
Crowley. "He had enough spirit and enthusiasm to fill an entire classroom."

Other survivors include many nephews and nieces.

A memorial service for Dr. Brace will be held at a later date.

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