Best Wishes to Dana Roth

I read on the Chemical Information Listserv that Caltech has an opening for a chemistry librarian.  There was an explanation stating that Dana Roth will be staying on part time after the position is filled.  Dana has to be the best academic chemistry librarian in the business.  Very often people posted difficult reference questions on the listserv.  Within minutes, Dana would post the answer.

Dana is well respected by his colleagues.  There is an award given by the Chemistry Division of SLA known as the Wiggins-Roth Award. I guess I should write a blog entry about Gary Wiggins. Dana also was the recipient of Caltech’s Thomas W. Schmitt Annual Staff Prize in 2008.  There is a nice article about Dana on a Caltech website.

I had the pleasure of meeting Dana twice.  The late Anne Buck who hired me at NJIT moved on to Caltech and became Dana’s boss.   Sometime in the late 1990s he was in the east coast and came to visit me in the NJIT library.  We only had nice things to say about Ann.  I found out from Dana of Anne’s untimely passing in April 2003.

On June 10, 2003 when SLA met in New York City, I organized a gathering of baseball enthusiasts including Dana  at Yankee Stadium.  The Yankees beat the HoustonAstros 5-3 .  The next day 6 Houston pitchers combined to pitch a no hitter against the Yankees.

I certainly wish Dana all the best as he moves into a part time position at Caltech. He still will be an asset to the chemical information community.  The new hire will have a great mentor.