Sydney B. Mitchell
After an illness of
six weeks, Sydney B. Mitchell passed away at his home in Berkeley,
California. Mr. Mitchell, founder and Dean Emeritus of the University
of California School of Librarianship, was seventy-three years
of age at the time of his death. He is survived by his wife, Mrs.
Rose Mitchell and his sister Mrs. C. A. MacKenzie, of Winnipeg,
Canada.
....Prof. Mitchell was a native of
Montreal, Canada, and held Bachelor and Master of Arts degrees
from MaGill University. Also he held an honorary Doctor of Literature
degree from Occidental College. Having studied at the New York
State Library School, he joined the University of California staff
in 1911 and was appointed chairman of the department of library
science in 1924. In 1927 he was named professor and director of
the school of librarianship and in 1944 dean of the school. In
1946 he retired as Dean Emeritus.
....He was a member of the executive
board of the American Library Association and former vice-president
of the California Library Association, president of the Association
of Library Schools, and a fellow of the American Library Institute.
At one time he was advisory editor of the Library Quarterly.
....Throughout his life Prof. Mitchell
was keenly interested in horticulture. Until recently he was president
of the California Horticultural Society and editor of its journal.
Widely acclaimed as a lecturer and speaker, he also was an author
of world renown. His more recent works include Your California
Garden and Mine and Iris for Every Garden. While other flowers
interested him from time to time, it was the love for the tall
bearded iris, brought with him from Canada when he moved to California,
that remained with him until his final illness.
....He was active in the affairs
of the AIS for many years and was a frequent contributor to the
Bulletin. Prof. Mitchell was one of the sixteen writers who contributed
to the Society's publication The Iris- An Ideal Hardy Perennial.
Until very recently he was chairman of the Species Committee and
for many years was Custodian of the California division of the
Farr Memorial Library. His interest in breeding dates back to
his association with the late William Mohr in the late 1920's.
While his hybridizing work embraced a wide field, it was in the
development of the large plicata and the large tetraploid yellow
that he attained his greatest success.
....The Society's loss is irreplaceable
in the death of this great man -- horticulturist, hybridizer,
writer, speaker, wit, and above all else, thinker -- but the greatest
loss is to those who were fortunate enough to have studied and
worked under him and to those close to him who knew him and loved
him as a friend.
BAIS Jan. 1951, ....