University of Virginia Library

JOHN COOK WYLLIE, 1908-1968

The following resolution was adopted:

• John Cook Wyllie, the University of Virginia's Twelfth Librarian and its First Director of Libraries, was born on 26 October 1908 at Palatka, Florida and died suddenly in Charlottesville on 18 April 1968. Of his 59 years more than 37 were spent in the service of his beloved University.
• Mr. Wyllie, the son of the late Reverend William Wyllie, Episcopal Archdeacon of Santo Domingo, and his wife Mabel Cook Wyllie, was educated by private tutors in Santo Domingo and at Christchurch, St. Christopher's and the Charlottesville public schools in Virginia. Entering the University at the age of 16, he received a B.A. Degree in 1929. Two years earlier he had joined the library staff of the University of Virginia as a student assistant, and he served successively as Reference Librarian, Curator of Rare Books, and Associate Librarian until 1956, when he was named University Librarian by President Colgate W. Darden, Jr. In 1966, Mr. Wyllie was appointed to the newly established position of Director of Libraries with over-all responsibility for the University library system. In addition to his University responsibilities, Mr. Wyllie served as the director of the University of Virginia Press, 1948-1949, and as Book Editor of the Richmond News Leader, 1952-1962. He was a member of and held numerous offices in many learned societies and served with distinction in both the British Army and the American Army during World War II.
• The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia hereby express the University's irreparable loss in the passing of Mr. Wyllie and our gratitude for his many contributions to the University which, with characteristic modesty, he kept to himself wherever possible. He made an indelible impression upon the University of Virginia Library, and brought to his work a passionate love for books and manuscripts, which were second in his affection only to his family. The vigor and enthusiasm of his interests made John Cook Wyllie a catalytic influence in the intellectual life of the faculty and students that cannot be replaced.
• The Secretary is hereby instructed as a mark of our esteem to transmit a copy of this resolution to his family.