Melissa Sundardas
News Editor
Nancy Hall, a long-time devoted employee and member of York’s community, died May 22 at the age of 63 while surrounded by her family.
Hall started working for the York University Libraries in 1968 and dedicated 40 years of her life to helping students and faculty achieve success in their endeavours. Her most recent position at York before retiring in 2008 was manager of monograph acquisitions at the library.
Recognized for her love of life, especially her family, friends, garden and books, Hall is a wife, mother, grandmother and friend of many people who say her presence will not be forgotten.
“She was an amazing individual,” says Catherine Davidson, associate university librarian, collections who was both a friend and co-worker of Hall’s. “Against all odds she was open to challenges, she embraced change, she was responsive to the needs of the community and she continuously pushed her own comfort levels,” Davidson says.
Colleagues of Hall describe her as a very caring, competent woman who was well-liked, innovative, fearless of change and always had patience and respect for all those she came in contact with.
“She was a role model,” says university librarian, Cynthia Archer who worked with Hall for about 10 years. “It wasn’t just a job to her; she also really supported the students and York the institution, so no matter what she did, she thought about the end product which was students being successful in their academic endeavours and faculty being better able to do their research and their teaching,” Archer says.
Hall’s numerous contributions throughout the university are long-lasting and continue to benefit students and faculty members today.
When York’s community expressed a need for more digital resources, Hall was instrumental in making the transition to build new collections of electronic materials, such as ebooks, in the libraries. Davidson says the procedure for buying print books is much different from buying electronic ones and it required learning a lot of new work which Hall eagerly accepted.
Every year Hall worked on obtaining more international materials to expand the availability of information from other countries to students and faculty. She also actively contributed her knowledge and expertise of the library and York’s community to the libraries’ strategic plan, Open Doors, Open Minds.
Archer says Hall had many roots throughout the university, not just the library. In addition to her work in the library, Hall was part of the Communications Committee for the Professional and Managerial Group of York University – now called the Confidential, Professional and Managerial Employees Association CPMEA – from 1990 to 1999 and edited its monthly newsletter, the P&M News.
“She was a very intelligent woman and she’d been at the library for 40 years, but even at the end she was interested in learning new things,” says Archer. “I hope that I’m like that too at the end of my career, that I’m always interested in learning and that I embrace change.”
In memory of Hall, the flags at the Keele and Glendon campuses and Passey residences will be lowered to half-mast on May 31 from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. June 1.
Visitation will be held at Highland Funeral Home, 3280 Sheppard Ave. East on Thursday May 31, from 6 to 9 p.m. and Friday June 1 from 1 to 2 p.m.
The funeral service will be held in the Highland Funeral Home Chapel on Friday June 1 at 2 p.m.
Hall’s family says in lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the Canadian Cancer Society and the Heart & Stroke Foundation.
