The Adventures of
Edwin and Priscilla Holmgren
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Edwin S. Holmgren AB ’55 passed away on December 31, 2020 in Sleepy Hollow, New York. In a letter to Stanford’s librarians, Priscilla Holmgren, his wife and constant companion of 61 years, said, “He loved Stanford and had a wonderful public library career. Since you participated in preparing him for his career, it seems fitting that I should send a final gift from his estate.”
 From Wyoming to Stanford via New Mexico
Born in Rock Springs, Wyoming during the Great Depression in 1934, Edwin S. Holmgren grew up in several Western locations. His father managed Woolworth stores and the family relocated several times. He decided to attend Stanford on the recommendation of a high school teacher in New Mexico, majored in English with a focus on American literature, minored in Comparative Religion, and graduated with great distinction including Phi Beta Kappa in 1955. Throughout his life, Edwin told his friends that when he arrived at the Stanford campus, he felt as if he had died and gone to Heaven. His annual gifts supported the Libraries and other purposes at Stanford continuously from 1976-2020.
From Stanford Eastward
While Edwin was in classes at Stanford, Priscilla was across the country, attending Bates College in Maine. They were destined to meet in the middle. After graduation, Edwin took a Master’s in Library Science from the University of Illinois and found a first job as a reference librarian in Gary, Indiana, before becoming Assistant Director of the Summit Public Library in New Jersey. Meanwhile, Priscilla had become a program director at the Young Women’s Christian Association in Summit. They met at a meeting of the city’s social agencies and married in 1959.
Off to Bangkok, Home to New Orleans
About a year after they married, the University of Illinois library school called Edwin about a position funded by a USAID contract to set up an engineering library for the Thai Highway Department in Bangkok. “When that call came, everything we knew about Thailand was from the 1946 movie Anna and the King of Siam,” Priscilla explained, “but Edwin said that we would never be able to afford to travel there as vacationers, so we went and stayed for two wonderful years, seeing as many sites as we could. Our daughter, Maurine, was born in Bangkok.” When the two-year assignment was completed, Edwin accepted the position of assistant director of the public library in New Orleans, where their son Philip was born.
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“I never thought that marrying a librarian would be a life of adventure, but it was!”
–Priscilla Holmgren
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Next, New York
From New Orleans, the family of four packed for New York, where Edwin became the associate director of the Rochester Public Library. In 1970, he joined The New York Public Library as Chief Librarian for the Branch Libraries. He was named Director in 1972 and retired in 1996 as Senior Vice President and Director of the Branch Libraries, managing 83 locations throughout Bronx, Manhattan, and Staten Island. New York Public Library Retirees Newsletter said, “During Edwin’s tenure at NYPL, numerous branches were remodeled or renovated, including a complete reconfiguration of the Mid-Manhattan Library. He was instrumental in opening the new Andrew Heiskell Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped.” NYPL president Paul LeClerc added, “Holmgren’s tenure has been marked by many significant accomplishments, capped by the recent introduction of LEO, the integrated online system linking all 82 branches—a giant first step toward our goal of making electronic information accessible to every New Yorker.” Many considered the online linking of New York’s branch libraries to be the crowning achievement of Edwin’s career.
More Adventures in Retirement
In retirement, Edwin continued to take full advantage of New York's cultural scene and served on the Lincoln Center Arts Council. For sixteen years, he volunteered to record books for the blind at the Andrew Heiskell Library. He was an avid reader himself, especially of biographies. After moving to the Kendal on Hudson retirement community in 2006, he and Priscilla enjoyed exploring Westchester and walking in Rockwood Park and the Rockefeller Preserve. “We did everything together,” Priscilla said, “such as going to concerts and singing in our church’s choir. Edwin played piano and one point in his life had considered a musical career. He was always creative.”
Edwin and Priscilla travelled in retirement, too. On one of their trips, Edwin compiled a journal that inspired him to take a class at New York’s Center for Book Arts and become a book artist. Some of his artworks were collaborations with Priscilla, an accomplished calligrapher. As Priscilla stated in her correspondence, it does indeed seem fitting that Edwin’s remarkable achievements as a librarian – and his lifelong love of family, travel, books, art, music, and Stanford itself – be memorialized at Stanford Libraries, the origin of his life’s journey.
Memorial Gifts to Stanford Libraries
Through thousands of gifts to the Memorial Fund, hundreds of library book funds in beloved subjects, and several named spaces in Green Library, Stanford Libraries has a long tradition of being sustained by memorial gifts. To discuss memorializing family, friends, and alumni at Stanford Libraries, please contact Gabrielle Karampelas in the Library Development Office: gkaram@stanford.edu, 650-492-9855.
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