Doris Ann Rourke – WestConn’s first archivist

In 1977, Doris Ann Rourke (nee Hagelin) published the first inventory of archival materials at WestConn – the first step in formalizing the archival operation in the library.

Doris was born in Touhy, Nebraska in 1917 and was a graduate of the  University of Nebraska.  During World War II, in 1943, she married Private Edward Rourke of Beacon Falls, CT.  She worked as a teacher much of her career before coming to WestConn in 1970 as a librarian.

She received her Master’s degree in library science from Southern while at WestConn where she worked until 1982. Doris passed away in California in the same year that WestConn celebrated its centennial, 2003.

CT Room in the 1970s
Students in the CT Room circa 1975

Prior to Doris Rourke, Marie A. Green, whose title was “Head of Technical Processing,” listed “Archivist” as a responsibility, but the facility at that time was less of a functioning archive and more of an area in the library.  They called it the Connecticut Room in the “new” Haas Library in 1970 and was located on the third floor.  There is still a Connecticut Room in the basement of the Haas Library.