PEOPLE
He was a Director for the United Nations Development Programme for the Caribbean and Latin America as well as holding visiting professorships in Nigeria, Canada, Jamaica, Korea, Indonesia, Peru, Poland, Tanzania, and Turkey. CLW and therefore Aberystwyth, became a signif- icant location for library education globally. CLW also had a significant impact on Welsh librarian- ship; staff in the Welsh Studies Department delivered core subjects in Welsh. CLW-educated librarians have played a prominent role in public, academic and national libraries for almost 60 years.
In 1977 Frank was made President of the UK’s School
Library Association, a post held until his retirement in 1989, when CLW became part of the University. In retirement, Frank continued to undertake consul-
Eric Hunter E
ric Hunter died peacefully after a short illness on 4 July 2022, aged 91. For much of his work- ing life Eric was a lecturer, writer and respected academic in the field of library and information science.
Eric Hunter was born in Bootle, Merseyside in 1930 and started his career in Bootle Library where he met his future wife, Enid. He qualified as a librarian and following National Service continued his career in public libraries: Bootle (1948-1965), Warrington (1965-1968) and Liverpool City Libraries (1968-1969). During this time Eric started working part-time as a lecturer on the librarianship course at Liverpool College of Commerce and when the opportunity arose in 1969, he became a full-time lecturer. During the 1970s the Library School in Liverpool, under the management of Wilfred Snape, became recognised as an important centre for teaching and research in the field of LIS and Eric became one of the driving forces in this development. The school was part of the newly formed Liverpool Polytechnic, which eventually became Liverpool John Moores University.
Eric specialised in teaching cataloguing and classifi- cation and became interested in the developing areas of information technology and its application to information management. He was instrumental in ensuring that com- puting became a core component of librarianship courses. Eric researched and wrote widely on librarianship, information handling and education and through the years many of his books became standard student and practitioner texts. He was also involved in many external
professional activities and played an active role in the then Library Association and Institute of Information Scientists, now amalgamated as CILIP. At John Moores University, he became Reader in 1989 and a richly deserved Professor of Information Manage- ment in 1994. After retirement Eric was made Emeritus Professor and enjoyed attending graduation ceremonies and continuing his involvement with the University. Eric was a family man and he married his beloved Enid in 1957. They had two daughters, Jayne and Fiona as well as six grandchildren and a great grandchild. Enid passed away in 2020 and Eric found it very hard without her. Prior to this they had had a long and happy retirement, holidaying together and playing badminton well into their eighties. Eric was a supporter of Everton Football Club and followed them throughout his life. Eric was valued and respected by his colleagues and students. He was also great fun to be around. You could never be sure what mishap might befall Eric and those who might be near him at the time.
A larger than life character who wore his academic learning lightly Eric was always helpful, always practical, always straightforward and honest. In a quiet yet effective manner, he was very supportive of those of us who were ‘new’ to academia and encouraged us to learn and develop by his inspirational example. Eric will be sadly missed by so many.
Janet Farrow with contributions from Elaine Ansell, Graham Matthews, Glyn Rowland and Keith Trickey.
Anoush Simon, Head of Department, Information Studies, Aberystwyth University.
tancy work and various voluntary roles in and away from Aberystwyth – the 50+ Forum, library services for visually impaired users. He was also a volunteer in a medical research project comparing the effectiveness of open heart surgery and TAVI (Transcatheter Aortic Valve Implantation). He was made an Honorary Fellow of the University in 2019.
Frank married his wife Pat in 1954; they had three sons. Pat died in 2000 and their youngest son in 2022. Frank continued to live in Llanbadarn until a few weeks before his death in a Norfolk care home close to his family there.
For obituary submissions and guidance please email
rob.green@
cilip.org.uk with subject “obituary”, or write to us at Obituaries, CILIP, Room 150, c/o British Library, 96 Euston Road, London NW1 2DB.
April-May 2023 INFORMATION PROFESSIONAL 49
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