In Memoriam: Hans Raum
Hans Raum, who worked as a Middlebury College librarian for nearly 40 years, died recently at Porter Medical Center in Middlebury. He was 84.
Raum, who held degrees from Pennsylvania State University and Drexel University, joined the Middlebury staff as assistant librarian in 1975, having worked in various library roles at Castleton State College and Penn State. In 1977, he was promoted to associate librarian, a position he held until his retirement in 2015.
Dean of the Faculty and Professor of History Jim Ralph remembers working with Raum, first as an undergraduate student, and then later as a colleague when Ralph joined the Middlebury faculty.
“I recall how helpful he was to me and other History majors working on junior seminar papers and senior theses which were based on primary sources in the late 1970s and early 1980s,” said Ralph. “Hans sought to make the collections of the Middlebury Library accessible, and he continued to take that approach with my students when I returned as a faculty member in 1989. In his own distinctive manner, Hans would make suggestions about potential resources for research projects. No one was more knowledgeable about the holdings of the Vermont Collection and the treasures therein.”
Twice during Raum’s Middlebury career, he served as acting College librarian. Shortly after he was hired, the sudden death of the College librarian thrust him into the unexpected role while the search for a new librarian took place. In 1986, he was again named acting College librarian to cover the six-month leave of College Librarian Ron Rucker.
“Hans’s uncanny ability to seek the positive in people and difficult circumstances complemented my sometimes harder-edged administrative inclinations,” recalled Rucker, who retired from Middlebury in 2001. “This was to the benefit of a dedicated library staff, as well as library users—our reason for being there after all. I am deeply appreciative of our long and rewarding association.”
Raum was an early collaborator working with other Vermont research libraries and organizations like the University of Vermont, the Sheldon Museum, and the Vermont Historical Society to collect and preserve Vermont history, according to Joanne Schneider, who worked in collection management at Middlebury for 22 years.
“Hans was a consummate librarian dedicated to providing public service especially by becoming facile in Vermont history resources, the government documents collection, and mastering the library’s many data sources in which he attempted to train his colleagues to the best of their abilities. He was always willing to work hard and overtime in the interest of the library’s patrons whether they were affiliated with the college or not.”
Raum loved outdoor adventure and pursued it well into his retirement, according to Wally Elton, a close friend who met Raum while teaching in Middlebury’s geography department in the late 1970s. Among their many hikes, Raum and Elton twice traveled to Yosemite National Park, a place Raum loved, to hike the High Sierra Loop.
According to Schneider, Raum had diverse interests that brought him around the world, including climbing to the Mount Everest base camp with the Sierra Club to clean up mountaineering debris; deep water diving to take underwater photographs; and becoming a major donor to the International Campaign for Tibet that resulted in him being invited to travel to india to meet and be thanked by the Dalai Lama.
“Hans was such a special person, very spiritual, compassionate, empathetic, and authentic,” said Schneider. “He was willing to help anyone in need.”
An official obituary has not yet been published, and plans for a memorial service have not been announced.