00:00:00SECOR: I am the dean of Muhlenberg College talking to you from the Muhlenberg
Room of the college library on this twentieth day of September 1973. This tape
is intended to be part of an oral history of Muhlenberg, consisting primarily of
conversations with senior members of the college community. This project was
officially named the John S. David Muhlenberg College Oral History Project at a
special ceremony held last spring to honor Professor Davidson on the occasion of
his retirement as librarian of the college. Dr. Katherine Van Eerde, Professor
of History at Muhlenberg, will be conducting this morning's interview
conversation with Ms. Mary A. Funk, Emeritus Professor in the Muhlenberg faculty.
Ms. Funk earned her B.S. [Bachelor of the Sciences] degree from Simmons College
in 1927 and her M.S. [Master of the Sciences] degree in Library Science from
00:01:00Columbia University in 1933. Before joining the Muhlenberg faculty in 1939 as
Assistant Librarian and Assistant Professor, she served as Assistant Librarian
at Kutztown State College between 1927 and 1939. In 1964, Ms. Funk was promoted
to Associate Professor in the faculty--in 1968 to Full Professor, and subsequent
to her retirement, she was awarded the rank of Emeritus Professor in the faculty
in 1969.
I am delighted that Ms. Funk has agreed to help us with our oral history project
by talking with Dr. Van Eerde this morning. Dr. Van Erde.
VAN EERDE: Thank you Dean Secor. Ms. Funk, instead of starting in the usual
fashion with where you were born, and what you did the first few years, and so
on, I'd like to take you right into a subject of considerable importance in uh,
00:02:00in 1973. We can go back to the other later. And that is the subject of your
moving into a man's world when you came to Muhlenberg in 1939. Muhlenberg was
then a man's college, men's college, not coeducational, and I'd like to hear
from your own lips, your experiences as you became a faculty member, and a woman
faculty member at this college in 1939. Could you tell us something about that please?
FUNK: Well, I remember the--I remember the Fall Convocation in 1939, when I
appeared in cap and gown for the academic procession, and many of the men on the
faculty, uh, seemed to be quite excited about this because they had never had
00:03:00that before. I sometimes thought that they protested too much about how nice it
was to have a woman on the faculty (all laughing) because I think they didn't
quite agree with it. But as time went on, some of those very people became my
very good friends, so I felt that they had learned that I could be one of them
(chuckles) as well as, uh, a man.
VAN EERDE: You were a genuine trailblazer in that case it seems. Now you tell
me--you attended faculty meetings from the beginning?
FUNK: Yes, I did.
VAN EERDE: And you voted?
FUNK: Yes.
VAN EERDE: So that you were, oh, this anomaly at Muhlenberg--
FUNK: That's right.
VAN EERDE: --a female who had faculty privileges and exercised them at the very
beginning of World War II, as far as Europe's concerned not even the United
States, and I think it's quite interesting. (coughs)
00:04:00
Since I've mentioned World War II, we might go on to another one of your, um,
supposedly unfeminine activities, that is teaching math during World War II.
We've had experiences of other faculty who were here during World War II and the
relations of Professor Deck and Professor Koehler, as to how they were involved
with this, but I didn't realize until I talked to you the other day that you
were also a part of that. Would you tell us something about that please?
FUNK: Well, at one time during the war, we had thirty five civilian students and
five hundred Navy and Marines. The college did not want to have to dismiss any
of their faculty members if they could help it. So, they needed teachers for
math and physics, particularly, and so they asked any of us who had any ability
along that line to volunteer for the, uh, job of teaching the sailors. And so, I
00:05:00had taught math in high school, but I'd never taught it in college but decided I
would try it--and actually, we were paid extra for that. (laughing)
VAN EERDE: Well, that's very nice.
FUNK: I taught one hour a day, every day of the week, and uh, really enjoyed
being with these young men.
VAN EERDE: I think you said you didn't have any difficulty at all in keeping up
with the work that was put before you--
FUNK: No. It, it was--Professor Deck had gone over the work with us before we
started. Uh, and I found that it was quite interesting. It was the--you might
have called it Freshmen Mathematics. It wasn't beyond that. There were some of
00:06:00the students who stayed on for a longer period, who then went into an advanced course--
VAN EERDE: I see. Regular courses.
FUNK: --but those were taught by Professor Deck and Professor Koehler. Those of
us who had been, uh, gotten into this routine kept on repeating the same course
over and over (Van Eeerde agrees) so that it became quite interesting. And the,
uh, the students were very appreciative of all that you could do for them. They
were um--they used to come to me for help in the library, and I would look at
them and say, "Are you in my class?" And they would say, "No, but, uh, so-and-so
is and he thought maybe you would help me with this problem." So, there I was. (laughs)
VAN EERDE: You told me a very sound, pedagogical point. You said that some of
00:07:00the professional mathematicians went so rapidly, these students couldn't catch
up and you were--(both talking at the same time; unintelligible)
FUNK: They would, uh, they would skip steps as mathematicians do.
SECOR: All men of that science. (Funk and Van Eerde laugh)
FUNK: Oh. For me, who was, uh, not that good at it, I had to put in all those
steps, and therefore the students liked that because then they could see just
what they were doing in them and how they would help.
VAN EERDE: There's one other little aspect of this. If any student, among the
Navy students, turned fractious, what happened?
FUNK: Well, this was particularly--I mean I had no trouble in class, but
sometimes in the evening, uh. We were open until eleven o'clock at night, every
night of the week. And I think I worked maybe three nights a week those days.
00:08:00And if, if they got the least bit noisy, all I had to do was say, "Do you want
me to report you to the CO [Commanding Officer]?" And--
VAN EERDE: Total silence.
FUNK: Total silence. And they didn't know that I would never have done that. (laughs)
VAN EERDE: Dear, dear dates beyond recall. Well, thank you. That uh, that
constitutes a body of memorabilia that I certainly didn't know was part of your
work at Muhlenberg.
We might now perhaps go back to, uh, to beginnings. You were born in
Shippensburg, you tell me.
FUNK: No.
VAN EERDE: Or near it?
FUNK: That was my home town. But I was born in Littlestown--
VAN EERDE: Excuse me.
FUNK: --and then lived in York, and then in Shippensburg again.
VAN EERDE: I see, sorry.
FUNK: But I, uh, went to Shippensburg to high school and then to a normal school.
VAN EERDE: And you're one of those I found--there are a number in the world--who
00:09:00set their sights on teaching, and after a day or two in the classroom know that
it's not for them.
FUNK: (laughing) That's right. I mean I had decided when I, uh, went to the
first grade for the first day, came home and told my mother, "I'm going to be a
schoolteacher." And I didn't change from that idea until after I taught. (both
Van Eerde and Funk laugh) And then I found that there were some things about
teaching that I didn't like. Particularly, the discipline end of it since I was
teaching in high school, and, uh, sometimes that became a little bit annoying.
VAN EERDE: Onerous, yes. Clearly, you were cut out to be a librarian. I'm
interested that you, um, moved to excellent places for your library work.
You--here you have a certificate from Shippensburg. An obvious thing would have
been for you to go to some state college in Pennsylvania, but you went to
Simmons which has long been known for its quality in librarians.
00:10:00
FUNK: Uh, that was because the librarian at the Shippensburg Teacher's College
had had some courses with teachers from Simmons. She didn't go to Simmons, but
she had teachers from there.
VAN EERDER: I see.
FUNK: And, uh, when I asked her about where I should go to take library work,
she recommended Simmons as being a very good one.
SECOR: You can probably see yourself all over again, Ms. Funk, if you walk
downstairs and, uh, see Miss Quinley, our latest professional librarian from Simmons.
FUNK: (both talking) Oh, I have not seen her yet, but I understand that she is a
Simmons graduate and that pleases me. (chuckling)
VAN EERDE: Certainly. Well, there's further evidence in your interest in
pursuing your profession to--to a point of very distinct quality. You worked for
twelve years at Kutztown [University] after getting your B.S. And I think you
00:11:00told me you practically ran the library as the librarian himself did the
teaching of courses.
FUNK: That's right. The extra library work was mine.
VAN EERDE: (both talking) The operation of the library was yours. And then when
you decided that that wasn't going to be the end of the line for you. Instead
of, again, picking up a degree by night work or some such thing, you took a
year's leave of absence--
FUNK: I took the leave of absence and went to Columbia to get my master's .
VAN EERDE: --and you went to Columbia and got your master's. Was that an
interesting year?
FUNK: Very interesting. Uh, although there were many things that we had that
were repetition for me because I'd already gone through it, you know, and had
done that work. But, I was very much interested in it and had good teachers who,
uh, recognized, I guess, that I was a good librarian.
00:12:00
VAN EERDE: That it was your destiny. Right, right. It's quite clear. You, uh,
told me that--the dean will be interested in this--you told me that at Simmons,
you had already expressed an interest to take some math courses because you did
enjoy math as a side subject. And it was strictly forbidden because it wasn't in
the library curriculum.
FUNK: That's right. It was not in the Library Science curriculum, and therefore,
I was not allowed to take it, even though my grades would have allowed me to
have had an extra course. I didn't want to substitute it for anything. I just
wanted to take an extra. Actually, my physics teachers that I had at Simmons
thought that I should go into--he thought that Library Science work in a
scientific manner.
VAN EERDE: Mhm. You might have started that information retrieval clearly years earlier.
00:13:00
FUNK: Yes, something like that. Because things seemed to be easy for me, uh, but
their physics course very definitely stressed mathematics. And so I could work
these math problems--
VAN EERDE: I see.
FUNK: --that a lot of the other girls couldn't. And therefore, he thought that
maybe I should be a scientific librarian, and I said well actually I didn't know
too much about other sciences--and don't to this day. All that I know about
chemistry is what I learned in being a librarian. I mean because I never had a
course in chemistry.
VAN EERDE: You simply have this special math gift which is something one has or
hasn't. Well now, I think it's time probably for us to bring you to Muhlenberg
itself. Your predecessor was Richard--a man named Richard Brown, I believe, who
00:14:00had been a public librarian or he was the librarian when you came? I'm sorry.
FUNK: Yes, actually, he was the librarian when I came. He had--the year before I
came he was by himself in the library. And the college had decided that they
should have an assistant librarian, and I happened to get that position. And
then he was here just one year after I was here. Then, he had gotten a position
over in Reading at the public library as head librarian. He had been reference
librarian there some years before that and, um, liked it and thought he would
like to go back there. And then that's when Mr. Davidson came.
VAN EERDE: I see. I'm sure you're too modest to tell us what you've mentioned to
me before, but you arrived at Muhlenberg just as Mr. Brown was about to take off
00:15:00on his summer vacation. And you didn't think you could run the library without
any information. So for two and a half weeks, you worked without pay with him
before his vacation so that during his long vacation you'd be able to do
something with the library itself.
FUNK: That's right. He, uh, presented the idea to the authorities that I should
be paid for that time, but since it was the end of the fiscal year, they didn't
have anything left in the budget. (laughs) So, I worked those weeks without any
pay. But--
VAN EERDE: No, it's typical if you're engrossed into the whole library, I know.
It's interesting.
FUNK: But that doesn't matter. I mean I wanted to know how he was running the
library. And I thought that if, if I came in one day and he left that day, I
wasn't going to know very much about it. So, I preferred working with him for a
00:16:00little bit.
VAN EERDE: Very so. This was the new library--a new library at this time, wasn't
it? The one that we're sitting in now, but it was quite a new building then.
'35, '36--something like that.
FUNK: Well, I think they moved in here about '32.
VAN EERDE: Was it that early, I'm sorry. But as you, and others, have explained
it was by no means entirely devoted to the library at that point.
FUNK: No, indeed. We were on the main floor.
VAN EERDE: And that was it?
FUNK: That was really it.
VAN EERDE: You said the basement was for storage perhaps.
FUNK: Oh, we did very shortly put some of the work down there with student help,
such as pasting pockets and lettering the books--things of that sort we took out
of the office. But the first year, I'm sure, everything was done in the office
and well, we didn't have this room.
00:17:00
VAN EERDE: No, this was the history department's space, I believe. Wasn't it?
FUNK: That's right.
VAN EERDE: I'd like to continue, Ms. Funk, a bit on the uses of the library at
the time when you came. You told me something I hadn't known, which is that the
top floor--which was apparently extended across the whole top of the
library--was used for dances when you arrived sometimes.
FUNK: That's right. I mean sometimes we would have dances or other parties up
there. It was just a big open room. I mean it was a nice place for things like
that. And actually, there wasn't any other place for them to have anything.
VAN EERDE: And the faculty lounge was downstairs on the ground floor--
FUNK: --on the ground floor where the present student lounge is.
VAN EERDE: And you told me some more that I wasn't aware of which is, is that
the circulation desk was not on the right as you enter, but rather just before
the entrance to the stacks now.
FUNK: That's right. Directly under the picture of Martin Luther and his family.
00:18:00
VAN EERDE: And that's where you held out for a time at any rate and that you
sometimes used the office. But you were, at the beginning, circulation
librarian, reference librarian, cataloguer, general--
FUNK: Whatever there was to be done. (all laughing)
VAN EERDE: Exactly. Gradually one of the things became your special care. And I
remember well from the time--for as long as I've been at Muhlenberg--and that is
the displays of books, which you carefully arranged and identified. Can you tell
us about, first the case and then a little bit about your work with those cases.
FUNK: Actually, when I came here that never was--I had forgotten where it had
been put--but that case over there was down in the lobby.
VAN EERDE: The case in the Muhlenberg Room.
00:19:00
FUNK: Oh, that's right. And it was used for displays of different kinds.
Although, it didn't hold too very much. Actually, it wasn't changed too often,
and then--I don't know when it was--but a Chilean company were remodeling their
store and getting in some new counters, and they gave us two pieces of their
counters. They had the sliding window closing in the back. And we took them, and
took that off and put them back-to-back to make the display case, which for many
years was right in the center of the lobby. Then, after we changed the
00:20:00circulation desk, then it was moved over to the side.
VAN EERDE: Sometimes I know that it's--that the displays have been keyed to
current events or to visiting scholars and their works. But I want to move from
that now to something that anyone who knows you can never possibly dissociate
from you--and that is your collection of Lincolniana and your immense knowledge
of that. I learned for the first time the other day exactly how you got
started--of course, I recognize you began with a genuine interest in Lincoln.
But you have a very specific and personal connection with a piece of
Lincolniana, and I think it's worth hearing about that now.
FUNK: Well, I have a large portrait of Lincoln, which was given to my
grandmother by President Lincoln when he was in the White House. And, uh, it had
00:21:00gone from my grandmother to her brother, who then in the 1890s had it framed in
the style of the Civil War. And eventually, I fell heir to it because a ring
that I had been willed in my great-uncle's will had disappeared because his wife
was blind before she died, and when they couldn't find that ring, the lawyer
told my mother to pick something of the things that were not listed in the will
for me. And my mother--knowing me--picked a picture of--
SECOR: A good choice.
FUNK: (laughing) --a picture of and from then on I began collecting things. I
had perhaps had two or three books on Lincoln before that but uh--
00:22:00
VAN EERDE: It's a lovely portrait and beautiful frame.
SECOR: Is it a photograph or a painting?
FUNK: It's actually--
VAN EERDE: A retouched engraving.
FUNK: I think it's a photograph that has been retouched to color--tinted.
VAN EERDE: But tell us the story about how your mother happened to visit
President Lincoln. That I think is fascinating--excuse me, I'm sorry. Your
grandmother visited President Lincoln, sorry my mistake.
FUNK: Well my grandmother was, um, married to a man by the name of Wyzotski who
was a soldier in the Civil War. And he and a friend of his had come home to
Gettysburg on a little furlough and were on their way back to their camp--were
going through Maryland--and they were walking it, got thirsty. They stopped at a
house and asked the lady if they might have a drink of water. Uh, she gave them
a drink of water and then said she had just baked a pie and would they like a
00:23:00piece of pie. So, yes of course they would. And my grandmother's husband was a
little greedy--he ate two pieces of the pie, and it killed him. The other man
ate just one piece and was very sick but recovered. Apparently, they had struck
a home where there was a sympathizer of the South, Maryland being one way or another--
VAN EERDE: A Lucrezia Borgia of the Civil War.
SECOR: This is what all history is all about.
VAN EERDE: That's right, isn't it fascinating?
FUNK: (all laughing) And she had poisoned this pie, so that my grandmother lost
her husband, and she had two small boys. And, uh, in 1864 when the Widow's
Pension Act was passed, she applied for a pension and nothing happened. So, she
00:24:00went to a lawyer friend in Gettysburg who said, "Well, get on the train and go
down to Washington to see the president." So she did, and without any trouble
was able to get in for an interview, and I think that when he had taken all the
information about her husband--his rank, and so forth--he wanted some way of
dismissing her and reached out on his desk and gave her this picture, which was
rolled up. I mean, it was not in the frame. And said would she like to have a
picture of him, which of course she took along home with her. And, um, then she
later remarried and my mother was of the second family and that's how they
00:25:00happened to get this picture.
SECOR: Marvelous story.
FUNK: I was very sorry that I knew nothing about this picture when my
grandmother was alive. I was eight when she died, and I wished that I had had
her tell me this story firsthand.
VAN EERDE: Of course.
FUNK: Well, I didn't know anything about it until later on. And then I had to
take what my mother was able to tell me about, what she knew.
VAN EERDE: One little fact I neglected to ask, did your grandmother get the
widow's pension?
FUNK: Oh, yes yes. She got the pension.
VAN EERDE: So, Lincoln performed is what I'm hearing. Good.
FUNK: She got the pension all right. Yes, she had no trouble with that.
VAN EERDE: Well now, we mustn't leave your collection with that fascinating
early story. I have seen the room in which it sits, and I'm sure I haven't begun
to see all of it, though I've seen portions of it over the years as February
12th rolled around. And um, can you tell us in a general way of what it
00:26:00consists. Now the picture that was taken of you this morning, it shows you
holding a Lincoln doll and a Lincoln statuette. What else is there in your
Lincoln collection?
FUNK: Oh, I have anything that has any connection with Lincoln. I have collected
Lincoln things from all over the world you might say of--I don't know if you
noticed the totem pole I have there.
VAN EERDE: Yes, I did. Very interesting.
FUNK: I got that up in Alaska. Always when I went off on a trip, I would plan to
bring back something for my collection, but before I went to Alaska, I said to
myself, "Well, I won't get anything on Lincoln because we didn't buy Alaska
until 1867, when Lincoln was already dead two years." But it seems that the
00:27:00Indian tribes up there--one tribe had made slaves of another tribe--and along
somewhere after this time of the United States purchasing Alaska, uh, a trader
came into the harbor, and he was talking to one of these slaves who was
bemoaning the fact. And this trader said, "Well, you don't have to be a slave,
you're part of the United States now, and Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves."
VAN EERDE: Is that so?
FUNK: So, it gave this tribe courage to fight back against the other tribe and
gain their independence. And then they said, "We must do something to honor this
man, Abraham Lincoln." So, they, uh called in their best totem pole carver and
00:28:00had him prepare a totem pole, which stands in a park of totem poles in
Ketchikan, Alaska. And this, that I have is a thirty inch replica of it which I
brought home from that trip.
VAN EERDE: That's very interesting.
Break in recording
VAN EERDE: Ms. Funk, many collectors are content simply to collect, to store, to
enjoy their treasures by themselves, but one of the most prominent facts about
you is that you have been more than eager to share your knowledge and your
accumulated wisdom about one of the greatest figures the world has ever
produced, Abraham Lincoln, with a variety of other people. I think you told me
that you've got three talks scheduled for next February and another one for
April. And I know that your schedule has been heavy throughout all the years
that I've known you in discussing Lincoln. Particularly, in relation to the
00:29:00Bible, but undoubtedly going out in other directions, too. Would you, um, tell
us something about--about your activities with the discussion of Lincoln and
your use of the various artifacts that you've collected?
FUNK: Well, I have no qualms about talking about Lincoln. Everytime anyone gives
me an opportunity, I don't know that I have ever refused--
VAN EERDE: Is that so?
FUNK: --to give a talk to a group. They have mostly been church groups, uh,
simply because the women's groups in churches are always hunting for people to
put on a program. And uh, I have acquired a fifteen minute filmstrip, which I show.
VAN EERDE: Ah, I didn't know that.
FUNK: It has a recording with it, and I talk. And then I show the filmstrip, and
00:30:00then I talk some more about my collection. And, uh, I have had very good success
with it--to the extent that, um, one of the women who just called me for me to
come to her church next February admitted that she had already heard me talk
three times, but she was willing to hear it again, and she wanted the rest of
her people to hear it. So, I just enjoy going around and doing that.
VAN EERDE: I'm sure there's always something new you're adding. You are still
collecting material on Lincoln, I believe.
FUNK: Oh, yes indeed. Every time I get a chance, and it's surprising how many
people--even strangers--uh, will offer you material. When I retired here, there
00:31:00was an article about me and my collection in the local paper. And I had several
calls from perfect strangers who said that they had a clipping of--on Lincoln,
would I be interested in having it. And, uh, one person sent me a book that had
been in her family for a number of years, but she said, "It's the only Lincoln
thing we have, we'd rather have where"--
VAN EERDE: In a collection, right.
FUNK: --"there is a collection." So people have been very generous along that
line, and my friends when they go different places look for Lincoln things and
bring them back for me. And it really makes it very nice.
00:32:00
VAN EERDE: There's one more quite interesting point about that original portrait
of Lincoln that her grandmother received. You told me that, um, Stephen Laurent,
did not have it in his first draft of photographs.
FUNK: That's right. When his book came out on photographs of Lincoln, I went
carefully through it and found that the closest to it was one by Matthew Brady,
which looks very much like my picture but was different to this extent that
anyone who knows Lincoln pictures--if you can see the second button on his vest,
there is always a gold watch chain across. And my picture does not have a gold
watch chain. My theory is that the man who did the tinting of it thought that
00:33:00gold watch chain was pretty much of a job, therefore he just blacked that out
(all laughing) so that he doesn't have it in. But I did send--Dr. Shankweiler
had taken some pictures of my portrait when I had it here on display--and I sent
Stephen Laurent one of those copies with an explanation about where I had gotten
it. And he wrote back and did not know of any other source, other than the fact
that it looked like a Matthew Brady, that was his only solution to it. I thought
that when his next addition would come out, he would include mine, but he
didn't. So, I was cross and did not buy the second edition of Stephen Laurent.
00:34:00(Secor laughing) But then when the third edition came out, which was much
bigger, it still didn't have my picture in it, but I couldn't resist buying it anyway.
VAN EERDE: Well, thank you very much Ms. Funk, that gives us a good idea of you
and Lincoln which is a happy relationship indeed. I'd like to move, I think,
finally to the relations you've had with students over the years at Muhlenberg.
I know that Mr. Davdson's told me that there are many students who enter the
library and go right to the circulation desk and say, "Where's Ms. Funk? I want
to see Ms. Funk." And come to the library wanting to see Ms. Funk. So I know
that your rapport with the students through the years has been excellent. Can
you tell us some of your memories and associations?
FUNK: Well, I think the main thing is that I wanted to help them. Anyone who
needed help knew that if they came to me, I would tear my hair out trying to
00:35:00find what they wanted. And, so I would hunt something for them. Many times I had
been just ready to go home at the end of the day, and someone would come and
want help. And the next thing I knew, it was forty-five minutes later before I
left for home, simply because I don't think I ever said to a student, "Well, I'm
sorry I'm ready to go home now; you'll have to come back tomorrow." (laughing)
VAN EERDE: Or to a faculty member, I'm sure.
FUNK: So that, uh, I was always very glad to help. The reference work was the
part that appealed to me the most, and I certainly enjoyed doing that. In fact,
I still enjoy it. Occasionally, now when I come out I think maybe some of the
00:36:00staff members do it because they know it pleases me, but they will come up to,
"Oh, I'm so glad you came today. What do you do about so-and-so?"
SECOR: (laughing) That's nice.
FUNK: So, I feel that way about library work and always have.
VAN EERDE: I know the dean's not gonna--going to join with you and me on this
point, but I have a strong suspicion that your interest in detective stories and
affection for them, which I share, has to do with your interest in hunting
things out. I mentioned this to you the other day. And you have greatly enriched
the collection of detective stories at this library. (Funk laughs) I, I think
that that's part of this insistence from wanting to know where things are and
keeping at it. How about individual students? You had a good deal of student
help, I think, didn't you?
FUNK: Yes, I mean the student helper's were very good. And I remember
00:37:00particularly, uh, one of the early ones who I think he was probably going to be
a senior that next year, but he worked during the summer. He came over from near
Reading each day to work in the library, did all sorts of the minor chores like
pasting and lettering. He was very good as a letterer. And it gives me great
pleasure to know that he is now president of Mt. Airy Seminary, Dr. John Newpher
SECOR: Newpher. That's very nice.
VAN EERDE: That's very interesting, indeed. Now, I want to add one little detail
for the benefit of future listeners. You worked regularly from 7:30 am to 5 pm.
Although, as you said, sometimes it went on to 5:30 and 5:45. Those are hours
00:38:00that are rather out-motive these days. And I know that your knowledge of the
library is complete. You simply do know where everything is. You told me also
that you used to give tours to Perkiomen Prep boys in the summer because a
former student--
FUNK: Yes, we had a old graduate here went to Perkiomen Prep to be an English
teacher, and when the graduate who went to teach English at Perkiomen Prep felt
that the boys graduating there were going on to college and that they did not
know enough about what a college library was like. Their library was small, and
he felt that it would do them good-- (fire alarm begins ringing)
Break in recording
SECOR: Now that the fire drill is over, shall we continue Dr. Van Eerde?
00:39:00
VAN EERDE: You were telling us, Ms. Funk, that you had an annual tour of
Perkiomen Prep boys also instituted by a former student of yours, I think, year
after year you showed them around.
FUNK: He brought his senior English class to the library. They came prepared
with a group of questions, and I would take them around the Reading Room and
show them different reference books, and then they would sit down and hunt up
the answers to those questions and really seemed to enjoy it. And as long as he
was teaching there, they came every year. And the last couple years after he had
gone, the person who had taken over his job had been there in the school and
knew about it, so that he came. Then, I'm not sure whether he left. I mean the
00:40:00last few years they didn't come, but uh, they seemed to enjoy it.
VAN EERDE: Oh, I'm sure.
FUNK: And he felt that it was a good experience for them to see what a college
library was like and where all the books were.
VAN EERDE: I think it's very clear that your association with and aid to
students has been one of the outstanding contributions you've made to
Muhlenberg. That's reiterated and underlined by your receiving the Muhlenberg
Alumni Achievement Award in 1970, a year after your retirement, I think, which I
remember was an occasion of great rejoicing for many people.
Well, thank you very much Ms. Funk for giving us a varied view of your
activities through three decades at Muhlenberg College. Thank you.