Thomas J. Galvin, Dean of SIS from 1974-1985, died in Chicago on February 18, 2004 . Galvin led the school during a dynamic growth period. Under his administration, the school more than doubled its enrollment, added ten new degrees and certificate program, increased its annual budget from $775,000 to $2.5 million, and made enormous headway in developing its information science programs, making the school the largest, most diversified school of the information professions.

Born on December 30, 1932 in Arlington , Massachusetts , Galvin received an AB degree with distinction in English in 1954 from Columbia University , an MLS from Simmons College (1956), and a PhD in Library and Information Science in 1973 from Case Western Reserve University . He was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Beta Phi Mu.

Well-known for his expertise in reference, a field in which he published extensively, Galvin began his career in 1954 as a reference librarian in the College of General Education , Boston University . He served as Chief Librarian at the Abbot Public Library, Marblehead , Massachusetts from 1956-1959, when he became Assistant Director of Libraries at Simmons College . In 1962, he joined the Graduate School of Library and Information Science at Simmons. He was named Associate Dean and professor there in 1972, before coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 1974.

Following his deanship at the University of Pittsburgh , Galvin was Executive Director of the American Library Association until 1989. He had been president of ALA in 1979-80 and at the time of his departure from ALA as Director that only six other people, including Melvil Dewey, had served in both capacities.

In 1989, he went to the State University of New York in Albany as Professor of Information Science and Policy at the Nelson A. Rockerfeller College of Public Affairs and Policy. He was also the Director of Albany's interdisciplinary PhD program in Information Science until he retired in 1999.

Galvin received numerous awards including the ALISE Award for Professional Contributions to Library and Information Sciences Education in 1993. In 1985 he received the Distinguished Service Award of the Pennsylvania Library Association. He was cited by the American Society for Information Science in 1979 for the best information science book of the year. Other honors included the Isadore Gilbert Mudge Citation of the American Library Association and distinguished alumnus awards from Simmons College and Case Western Reserve University .

The University of Pittsburgh salutes a great leader in LIS education.