Beverley Lashley Deputy Campus Librarian Main Library University of the West Indies Mona Campus, Kingston 7 (876) 970-6581 ________________________________________ Subject: LIAJA - General Members The late Pippa Fray Dear Colleagues, You might have seen in the Sunday Gleaner of December 28, 2014 the death notice of Mrs. C Philippa (Pippa) Fray, who was a retired librarian and an Honorary Member of LIAJA. Below is a tribute I have written to her. John Aarons TRIBUTE TO THE LATE PIPPA FRAY , MRCVS, DVPH, MSLS BY JOHN A AARONS, DECEMBER 30, 2014 With the death of Dr C Philippa Fray – or Pippa – as she was simply known to many, the library profession in Jamaica has lost one of the most colourful and committed librarians and an Honorary Member of LIAJA. Irish by birth and a Canadian by nationality, she came to Jamaica in the 1960’s when she married a Jamaican, the late Michael Fray. She not only changed her country of residence but also her profession. Trained as a veterinary surgeon - she was a Member of the Royal Society of Veterinary Surgeons and also held the Diploma in Veterinary Public Health - she became a librarian, receiving her Master’s degree in Library Science in 1964 from the University of Illinois. Given her strong science background, it is not surprising that she worked in scientific organizations, first at the Science Research Council from 1962 – 68 and at the Jamaica School of Agriculture from 1968 – 69. Special Libraries – the course which she taught for many years at the Department of Library and Information Studies at UWI – was her forte and passion and she, perhaps more than anyone else, promoted the concept in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Indeed, Carlene Bailey in an article on the Special Libraries Section of LIAJA in 2000 said that “The establishment of the Special Libraries Section can be said to have its roots in a 1964 article by Pippa Fray on cooperation in Jamaican government libraries”. She promoted the concept not only in her teaching but in papers such as Don’t Wait for the Dinosaurs: some aspects of special librarianship in Jamaica (1972) and The High Cost of Non-Information (1977). Indeed, the “high cost of non-information” was a theme which permeated her lectures. In 1973 the Commonwealth Library Association (COMLA) was established with the Secretariat being located in Jamaica. Pippa, by then working as a Library Consultant, was appointed the first Executive Secretary of COMLA and played a leading role in the establishment of the new organization. With her strong Commonwealth background, she relished her new role and travelled to a number of countries promoting COMLA and attending meetings and workshops. After retiring from COMLA in 1979, she worked, on a part time basis, in several organizations including the National Council on Library, Archives & Information Services (NACOLAIS). She was a regular attendee at LIAJA events even in the latter years when she was confined to a wheelchair and was by then hearing impaired. (Present day librarians might therefore remember her as the elderly lady in a wheelchair at the annual President’s Banquet). She was active in LIAJA and its predecessor, the Jamaica Library Association (JLA) of which she served as Honorary Secretary in 1966 and as COMLA representative on the Executive Committee for many years in the 1970’s. She was made an Honorary Member of LIAJA in 1992. A vibrant personality, who was not afraid to speak her mind and hold views which appeared to some as unconventional, she had not only a passion for librarianship, but a zest for life. She had wide interests especially in the cultural fields and she was seen, earlier this year, at the Liguanea Art and Crafts Fair with the wheelchair being pushed by her long serving Caregiver! On Christmas Eve, 2014, the heart of this faithful and committed warrior gave out. We give thanks for her long and useful life (she was 94 when she died) and for her pioneering contribution to library development not only in Jamaica - her adopted home - but in the wider Commonwealth. May her soul rest in peace.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 14:01:49 +0000
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