GNY-MLA News and Newsletter
Melva Peterson (1925-2005)
Melva Peterson, a loyal member of GNYMLA, died suddenly at her home in New York of a heart attack or stroke in June 2005. She would have celebrated her eightieth birthday last October.
Melva had retired from her position as Music Librarian at the City College of New York in 1995, after 39 years of service and transforming what was essentially a departmental collection into a substantive library. She was a graduate of Drake University, Columbia University Library School, and earned a second master's from the New School. She was an MLA member for nearly sixty years, remaining active into retirement. She served three terms on MLA's Board of Directors as recording secretary in the 1960s, was a member of the Commission Internationale Mixte (the IAML/IMS joint committee that governs RILM), and was awarded MLA's citation for distinguished service to Music librarianship in 2001. She was Book Review Editor for the Pan Pipes of Sigma Alpha Iota from 1957 to 1977.
Undaunted by age or infirmity, Melva traveled to Oslo for IAML and what turned out to be her final visit to her beloved Denmark for IAML in the summer of 2004, a few months before surgery for a knee replacement. She was active in a number of political, human rights, and anti-war organizations. She was an avid participant in New York 's concert life, sang with various choral groups (including MLA's Chicken Singers), and relished travel, particularly to Monhegan (the island off the cost of Maine ).
Memorial services were held last fall in New York and Iowa.
