MEMORIAL RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, It is with great sadness that members of this Chamber learned of the death of Former Chicago Public Library Commissioner John Bernard Duff, on October 1, 2013, at the age of 82; and
WHEREAS, The City Council has been informed of his passing by the Honorable Margaret Laurino, Alderman of the 39th Ward; and
WHEREAS, The beloved husband of Estelle Shanley, loving father of Michael, John, Robert, Maureen, Emily and Patricia Duff Bemacki; dear grandfather of eight and friend of many, John leaves a legacy of faith, compassion, dignity and love; and
WHEREAS, John Duff grew up in South Orange, New Jersey as the oldest of four brothers in a working-class family. He received a bachelor's degree from Fordham University in New York, a master's degree from Seton Hall University in New Jersey and his doctorate in history, in 1964, from Columbia University in New York. He taught and held administrative posts at Seton Hall University; was president of the University of Lowell in Massachusetts from 1976 to 1981; and was the state's Chancellor of Higher Public Education in Boston before coming to Chicago in 1985 as Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library, the first non-librarian to head the system. In 1992, John Duff took over as the eighth President of Columbia College; and
WHEREAS, During his seven years as Commissioner of the Chicago Public Library, John Duff championed the cause for a new central Chicago library. After years of effort, a design competition led to the construction of the Harold Washington Library Center on State Street in the South Loop; and
WHEREAS, Believing in the ideas of access and diversity he sometimes saw potential in people before they saw it themselves. As one of the grandest storytellers, and he wrote four books on American and Irish-American History, often finding historic parallels to present-day problems; and
WHEREAS, John Duff will be deeply missed, but the memory of his character, intelligence and compassion wil...
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