More than 32 years ago, Kevin Leonard walked into the small University Archives office hidden in a corner on the ground floor of Deering Library, looking for information on Harris Hall. There, he met University Archivist Patrick Quinn, who immediately had Leonard transferred from his job in circulation to the archives.
“(Quinn) was a good salesman and had a pretty lively personality,” Leonard said. “One thing led to another, and he gave me a job.”
He has worked there ever since and, in June, was promoted from assistant archivist to university archivist after Quinn’s retirement.
As a child, Leonard said he remembered always saving letters and school papers he felt had special value.
“I have things from when I was 5 years old,” he said. “I just couldn’t bear to throw these things out. This type of work just fits in with that type of mentality.”
Leonard said he looks to expand on Quinn’s 34-year tenure, during which Quinn increased storage of NU’s archives from just a few rooms to three buildings.
“I hope that we can build on what Patrick did, on the foundation that he established, to bring more people in here, to get more people interested and to have students more willing to use our holdings for their research projects,” he said.
Quinn said he is elated about Leonard’s appointment.
“I taught him everything he knows,” he said. “He helped me for three decades in building the University Archives, and that couldn’t have been done without him.”
Leonard pointed to two back injuries as evidence of his physical contributions to the archives.
“If I were to claim any credit for anything, it would be my back,” Leonard said. “I did a lot of the lifting. That’s part of the job. It’s a job where you get dirty.”
Despite the grunt work, he said the job of an archivist has many different aspects that keep it interesting.
“It’s kind of fun,” Leonard said. “The tasks you perform are varied. You’re not doing the same thing every day.”
Janet Olson, the assistant university archivist, said working with Leonard was “so much fun” because of his particular sense of humor.
“He does great impersonations,” Olson said. “You should see him doing a duck walking down the street.”
As archivist, Leonard will focus on how to make the information in the archives available to more people, Olson said.
“He knows the university inside and out, and his mind is always going (and) always thinking about how to make people aware of what we have,” Olson said.
The focus of these outreach efforts is to put more of the archive’s current content online, Leonard said.
“We have a lot of interesting content here, and a lot of content can be made more publicly available if it’s digitized and put up on the Web,” Leonard said.
Quinn said he looks forward to watching the archives flourish under Leonard.
“He’ll do a terrific job, and I’m delighted that he’s my successor,” Quinn said. “I know that he’s the right person for the job.”
