University of Virginia Library

MEMORIAL RESOLUTION FOR MR. FRANCIS L. BERKELEY, JR.

WHEREAS, Francis Lewis Berkeley, Jr., a native of Albemarle County, was born in 1911 and took his B.A. in 1934 and his M.A. in 1940, both from the University; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Berkeley was appointed the University’s first Curator of Manuscripts in 1938, a position to which he returned after four years of service in the United States Navy during the Second World War; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Berkeley, as Curator of Manuscripts, devised an indispensable cataloguing system, began a central archives for the University and performed an immense service to the Commonwealth and to the University by retrieving, cataloguing, saving and copying Virginia manuscripts and documents, particularly of the colonial period; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Berkeley and the late Frederick D. Nichols, Professor of Architecture, led the effort to restore the Rotunda to its original Jeffersonian design, and

WHEREAS, Mr. Berkeley served as Secretary to the Board of Visitors under President Darden from 1954 to 1958 and as executive assistant to President Darden and President Shannon; and

WHEREAS, Mr. Berkeley died in Charlottesville on February 19, 2003;

RESOLVED that the Board of Visitors takes note of the leadership and years of devoted and distinguished service to the University of Francis Lewis Berkeley, Jr., deeply regrets his passing and expresses its condolences to his family.