The Organizational Records include: committee minutes, reports, statistics, surveys, photographs expansion plans, policies, manuals, etc.
The records dated from 1958 through 1970 are mostly those of Eaton, who either created or collected them while he was the Head of the Library Department at CMU. Pre-1958 records were either created or collected by Charles V. Park.
Biography:
Two men served as Head of the Park Library at Central Michigan University (CMU), Charles V. Park and Orville L. Eaton.
Charles V. Park was born on January 19, 1885, in Kansas. He served as the Assistant Librarian at Stanford University, 1910-1930, and Librarian at Central State Teachers College, later CMU, from 1930 until he retired in 1957. He married Frances Odenheimer on September 1, 1917 in California, where he nationally ranked fifth in tennis. Park laid the foundation to increase the size of the library book collection, assembled professional staff, established a library science department, and built a new library in 1957. During his tenure he had the title “Librarian of the Library.” In 1931 the library was housed in the east wing of Warriner hall. In 1956 a two-story building was built, which is now Ronan Hall. Mr. Park died at age 97 on September 12, 1982 in Mount Pleasant, Michigan. He was survived by his children James “Ted” and Persis Rynberg, five grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren. (This information is from his obituary and other Park Library collections.)
Orville L. Eaton was born in either June or July of 1912, in Iowa, the son of William O. and Sophia Eaton. He earned his B.A. and M.A. from Kansas State Teachers College (KSTC), his Ph.D. from the University of Kansas (UK) (1946), and his Bachelor of Library Science from the University of Chicago (1946). In Kansas, Eaton worked as an elementary and secondary school teacher, and as an instructor at UK, 1940-1942. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in September of 1943. After the war, Eaton served as Director of libraries at the UK, 1946-1950, and Librarian and Head of the Department of Library Science at KTSC, 1950-1958. He served as Chairman and Professor of Library Science at CMU, and Head of the Library Department, from 1958 through at least 1968. As Head of the CMU Library Department, he presided over the building of the Park Library, 1963-1968. The Park Library was completed in 1969. An addition and remodeling of the Park Library occurred from 1999 through 2001. Eaton died on June 19, 1974 and was survived by his wife, Alta Moynihan Eaton. (This information is from his obituaries, and biographical information found on Ancestry.library.com viewed in 2005.)
