I had a crazy dream last night about Dr. Vitaut Kipel who
was my first supervisor at the New York Public Library Science and Technology
Division when I was hired in February 1983.
He really mentored me as he always gave me challenging assignments. I enjoyed writing annotations for New
Technical Books, a publication of the division. It was so frustrating giving
reference service in a closed stack library with the collection in several
places. Dr. Kipel retired as Assistant Chief of the Division in early
1985. The last time I saw him was in
Spring 1988 shortly after my son Lee was born.
Often I am curious about what happened to people who have
influenced me many years after our paths diverged. Kipel was scholar of Belarusan culture and
wrote the following book:
Kipelʹ, Vitaŭt. Belarusans in the United States. Lanham, Md: University Press of America, 1999.
Print.
His personal papers about Belarusan immigration are housed at
the University of Minnesota. This site http://www.ihrc.umn.edu/research/vitrage/all/ka/ihrc1210.html
is a finding aid for his papers and offers a detailed biography.
Dr. Kipel is now 85 years old and as far as I know he is
still living in East Rutherford, NJ. I
am aware that his wife Zora (seen in the photo above) who also worked for NYPL
passed away in 2003. I still have the
fondest memories of Vitaut Kipel.
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