A Very Unusual Reference Question

This afternoon I received a phone call from an alumnus of NJIT asking if I knew what freshman chemistry book was used in 1958 at the Newark College of Engineering which later became NJIT. He said that they professor's name was Tully. Obviously, the chemistry department would not keep a record of that for over 50 years. At that time, my shift was over and was going to lunch.

My thought was to search the library catalog under the subject chemistry and see what we had published in the 1950s. I retrieved the following 3 books:

Basic concepts in chemistry.Illustrated by James R. Holmes.Author: Watt, George Willard,City: New York,Publisher: McGraw-Hill 1958

An introduction to chemistry.Author: Ritter, Howard LCity: New York,Publisher: Wiley 1955

Author: Timm, John Arrend,City: New York,Publisher: McGraw-Hill 1950

All 3 books had a book plate saying:

This book was presented

To the Library of Newark College of Engineering

In Memory of

Thomas James Tully

Professor of Chemistry

1933-58

I called the person back and relayed to him the information. He did believe that one of these books was his freshman chemistry textbook. He said he would either get the books through interlibrary loan or purchase them through a used book dealer.

The man was most appreciative of the efforts I made to find him this information. Why would somebody want his freshman chemistry textbook from over 50 years ago? There is certainly nothing wrong with that, just people just have different values.

I remember my freshman chemistry textbook at City College of New York in 1967 was:

Chemistry : principles and properties [by] Michell J. Sienko [and] Robert A. Plane N.Y. : McGraw-Hill, [1966]

I really don't want to get a copy of that book ever again. I remember I did keep my chemistry books from my City College days for some years, but I must have eventually discarded them.