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42

MEMORIALS

Carolina Barton (1962-2018)
Dr. Carolina Barton passed away in October of 2018 while visiting 
family in Germany. She was a passionate and steadfast advocate 
of the library, generous with her time, and was both a mentor and 
supportive friend to her staff and colleagues at Concordia Univer-
sity Irvine where she had been the Library Director since 2006.

Carolina earned her MA from Gordon-Conwell Theological Sem-
inary, an MLIS from Simmons Graduate School of Library & Infor-
mation Science, and in May of 2018, became a Doctor of Education 
in Educational Leadership, from Concordia University Irvine. Her 
dissertation was selected by the American Libraries Association as 
a Notable Dissertation of 2019. 

Carolina served on the SCELC Board of Directors, and was a 
member of SCATLA, the California Library Association, and the 
American Library Association. 

Grant Bracewell (1928-2021)
The Reverend R. Grant Bracewell passed away on October 31, 2021, 
at the age of 93. He was born in Penticton, BC and completed his un-
dergraduate degree at the University of British Columbia. He was 
called to the ministry and did his Bachelor of Divinity at Union, BC, 
and was ordained as a minister in the United Church of Canada 
in 1955, serving as a minister in various communities. In 1967, he 
earned his Master of Library Science degree at the University of 
Washington, Seattle. Grant became the first Theological Librarian 



Memorials  43

at Emmanuel College in the University of Toronto. He also became 
the Coordinator of the Toronto School of Theology libraries. In his 
work for Atla, Grant chaired the Index Board at the time of transi-
tion from the printed Index to Religious and Periodical Literature 
to what has today become the Atla Religion Database. He also orga-
nized the ATLA Annual Conferences in Toronto in 1983 and 1991.  

Ministry and academia were Grant’s two passions. His service 
continued into his retirement where he volunteered at the United 
Church Archives in Vancouver. 

Judy Butler (1940-2019)
Judy M. Butler served as the Circulation/Instruction Librarian for 
Lipscomb University in Nashville, Tennessee from 1989 until her 
retirement in 2006. During her long career, Judy also served on the 
Tennessee Library Association Library Instruction Roundtable and 
Board of Directors, as well as President of the Nashville Library 
Club.

During her many years in the circulation role at Beaman Li-
brary, she was meticulous and accurate in her work habits. Her 
co-workers found her to be the ultimate professional in working 
with library patrons, and she was a wonderful teacher. She will be 
missed by her family and friends in the world of books.

Virginia Leach (1924-2021)
Virginia Leach was a graduate of McGill University and Wycliffe 
(Theological) College at the University of Toronto. While a student 
at Wycliffe, she met her future husband, Bill Leach. They married 
in 1955. Their union in life led to an amazing partnership in vari-
ous spiritual care roles in Massachusetts, Lakefield, and Toronto, 
Ontario. He was the Chaplain at Lakefield College School, the Di-
rector of Hospital Chaplains, and she was a respected theological 
librarian at Wycliffe College. She demonstrated an intense interest 



4 4    ANNUAL Y E ARBOOK

in the daily life of the staff and students at Wycliffe and was hon-
ored there by being made a Fellow. Leach had a wonderful gift for 
languages -- fluent in three or four. She had a lifelong enthusiasm 
for travel, the outdoors, philanthropy, and her membership within 
the Anglican Church, and combined all those with a love of garden-
ing, flowers, color, the arts, and music, particularly opera. Leach 
died peacefully at The Claremont retirement residence in Toronto 
in her 98th year with her brother, Geoffrey Beatty, by her side.

Melody McMahon (1957-2021)
Melody Layton McMahon was born December 25, 1957 in Tulsa, 
Oklahoma to Conrad and Beverly Layton. In 1982, she married 
Michael McMahon, and they had two children, Maeve and Niall. 
Melody graduated from the University of Oklahoma where she 
received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Music, Columbia University 
where she received her Master of Science in Library Service, and 
St. Mary’s Seminary where she completed a Master of Art in Sys-
tematic Theology. Over the course of her career as a librarian, Mel-
ody worked at The Julliard School in New York, before directing 
the library at the Cleveland Institute of Music. She also worked at 
John Carroll University’s Grasselli Library before becoming the di-
rector of the Paul Bechtold Library at Catholic Theological Union 
in Chicago. Melody was elected to the Atla Board of Directors in 
2012 and served as Vice-President in 2013. She served at CTU as the 
library director from 2008 until her retirement in 2017.

Melody was both a talented musician and a dedicated librarian 
who saw her library work as her vocation. She was an evangelist 
for open access scholarship and publishing, who used her keen ed-
iting skills on the editorial boards of the journals New Theology 
Review and Theological Librarianship.  Melody wrote the book, 
Enthusiasm for the Word: Life and Work of Fr. Simeon Daly, OSB, 
co-edited A Broadening Conversation: Classic Readings in Theologi-
cal Librarianship, and edited several other books. Melody was a 
Catholic convert, who took her faith very, very seriously and saw 
it as part of her identity. She was a bridge between the Catholic Li-
brary Association and Atla, as well as a generous mentor to people 
interested in theological librarianship.



Memorials  45

Carisse Berryhill mentioned, “I cherished her merry and gener-
ous spirit and am annually reminded of her great contributions to 
the American Theological Library Association when I assign read-
ings from A Broadening Conversation, edited with David Stewart, 
to my students.”

Melody died December 13, 2021, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. She was 
63.

Art Merrill (1930-2022)
Arthur L. Merrill, of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, died January 14, 
2022.  Born in 1930 to missionary parents in India, he lived a full 
life that included a Ph.D. in Old Testament from Chicago Univer-
sity, with post-doctoral study at Uppsala University, the Ecumenical 
Theological Institute in Jerusalem, as well as the Albright Institute 
for Archeological Research.  Ordained in 1954, Art felt the call to 
teach and began his career as Professor of Exegetical Theology, Old 
Testament at Mission House Theological Seminary in Wisconsin.  
In 1962 he was one of the founding faculty of the newly created 
United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities, where he was Pro-
fessor of Old Testament until his retirement in 1995; Art was the 
Director of Library Services at United from 1983-1995.  During his 
tenure as director, he shepherded the library through technologi-
cal advances and system migrations as well as a major renovation 
of the library’s physical space.  An avid stamp collector and Bridge 
player, Art also took great delight in a life-long project of cataloging 
Byzantine mosaics at archeological sites throughout Israel.

Donald Mitchell (1959-2020)
I am honored but also a little sad remembering my friend Donald 
Mitchell.

Donald and I first met as recently appointed College Librarians 
at a conference in 1990. We shared an enthusiasm for academic 



46    ANNUAL Y E ARBOOK

librarianship, an interest in library computerization (we both used 
the same Library Management System), a shared faith, an absolute 
belief in Library ‘customer care’ and we both had married Welsh 
girls. We met up every two years, attended meetings of our LMS, 
communicated frequently by phone and later email and looked 
forward to meeting in person at academic library conferences and 
later at ABTAPL.

What was Donald like? He was very proud of his Scottish ances-
try, and many will remember him wearing his kilt and full Scot-
tish rig at Conference dinners! He was a man of enormous  faith, 
funny with a wonderful sense of humor, loved life and his family 
of whom he was very proud, he enjoyed friendship, loved helping 
others both at work and outside work and reveled in the family life 
of his wife Sian and daughters Hannah, Eluned, and Sirol. Having 
recently retired, we discussed the pros and cons of retirement with 
Donald determined to keep going doing the things he loved until 
he was 70. Sadly, it was not to be. In the words of Donald’s obitu-
ary from the Union School of Theology ‘Donald was a godly man, 
faithful to Christ, and a friend to all who knew him. He was a much 
loved and important part of the Union family’. We, his ABTAPL 
‘family’ miss him and remember him with fondness and gratitude 
for a life well lived.

Jon Purcell. Librarian Emeritus. Durham University. UK

Kenneth Rowe (1937-2021)
With the death of the Rev. Dr. Kenneth Rowe, Methodist history 
grieves the loss of a voice that sought to ever-expand the Methodist 
narrative. He was a renowned librarian, archivist, bibliographer, 
editor, historian, and scholar. A two-time graduate of Drew Uni-
versity (B.A. 1959 and Ph.D. 1969), of Yale University (B.D. 1962), 
and of Rutgers University (MLS 1970), Rowe’s scholarship placed 
Drew University as one of global Methodism’s most important re-
search institutions. The author or co-author of 14 books, includ-
ing the 2-volume Methodist Experience in America (2010), he also 
played a crucial role in advancing others’ scholarship on Method-
ism. He was the driving force in bringing the General Commission 
on Archives and History of the United Methodist Church to Drew 



Memorials  47

University, helping to establish the United Methodist Archives and 
History Center in Madison, NJ. Along with raising funds to bolster 
the center’s collection, Rowe became widely recognized as the 
premier bibliographer of Methodism. He founded Atla’s Bibliogra-
phy Series and for Methodist history wrote the “Methodist Union 
Catalog,” tracing the expansive nomenclature of denominational 
writings. Rowe was an important advocate for archiving LGBTQ+ 
history in the United Methodist Church and supported the rights of 
gay members in both his professional and personal life. Rowe died 
on Oct. 8, 2021, at age 84, in New Bern, North Carolina, where he 
lived in retirement with his husband, James Sawyer.

Norman G. Wente (1931-2021)
Norm Wente was director of the Luther Seminary Library from 
1968 until his retirement in 1996.  He was born on January 24, 
1931, in Waterloo, Iowa.  He graduated from Wartburg College, 
Waverly, Iowa, in 1953 and received the M.Div. degree from Wart-
burg Seminary, Dubuque, in 1957.  He earned his library degree at 
the University of Illinois in 1967, and the Specialist Certificate in 
Library Science at the University of Minnesota in 1983.

In the mid-1970’s Norm oversaw the merger of the libraries of 
Northwestern Lutheran Theological Seminary with Luther Theo-
logical Seminary as a precursor to the official merger of the two 
seminaries in 1982.

Norm was an active member of Atla, the Minnesota Theologi-
cal Library Association, the Lutheran Historical Conference, and 
the Sixteenth Century Society & Conference.  He also was the local 
chair and coordinated arrangements for the Eighth International 
Luther Congress on the Luther Seminary campus in 1993.  A ma-
jor accomplishment during Norm’s tenure was the creation of the 
Rare Book Room, a beautiful space containing the library’s special 
collections designed to resemble a medieval scriptorium.   He was 
also instrumental in establishing the Lutheran International Li-
brary Assistance Project, with funding from the Lutheran World 
Federation, to send donated books to seminary and Bible school 
libraries in developing countries.



48    ANNUAL Y E ARBOOK

International travel and flowers were two of Norm’s particular 
passions. He studied at the Jerusalem Ecumenical Institute for Ad-
vanced Theological Research at Tantur and served as a consultant 
to libraries at the Faculdade Teologia, São Leopoldo, Brazil and in 
Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia. A greenhouse at-
tached to his home enabled him to grow and supply flowers, espe-
cially orchids, for special occasions year-round.  He was an active 
member of the Minnesota State Horticultural Society.  In retire-
ment Norm loved time spent with his wife, Myrna, at their cottage 
on Green Lake in Spicer, Minnesota. 


