*Mary Lynette Larsgaard*



Almost 71, she was too young to leave us! I thought she would be around
long before I passed. I have always viewed her as THE invincible superhero
of Map Librarianship.

She never gave up. Although retired at the end of June 2009, she continued
to be a guiding light. If, somehow, the outpouring of love and respect for
her could miraculously open the skies and bring her back, but alas, she
knew her limitations; we all think she was too modest.

If we were surfers, instead of librarians, we would create a gigantic
"Paddle Out" in honor of Mary.

Here in Santa Cruz, this month, there was a similar event for Jack O'Neill,
inventor of the wet suit, where an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 surfers formed
a circle in Monterey Bay, joined by 700 more in 83 vessels, and thousands
mourners on the cliffs of Pleasure Point near Jack's house.

Mary's magnum opus, *Map Librarianship*, is *our wet suit*. It will keep
us, snug and warm, out of harm's way.

Her dedication, her kindness, her humor, and her consideration of others is
her hallmark.

I like her modesty from the Preface of *Topographic Mapping of Africa,
Antarctica, and Eurasia*: "This monograph and its companion volume have
been for me a massive research work, occupying most of my so-called leisure
time for the past fifteen years. I have frequently had to lash myself -
first toward and then to - my desk, not particularly looking forward to the
drudgery awaiting me, soon to be barricaded behind musty, dusty, dreary
walls of books. Always within a half an hour I was once again in the steamy
jungles of Central America or French Equatorial Africa, or on a mountain
ledge in the Rockies. It has been well worth all my efforts."

Knowing Mary Larsgaard for fifty years has been one of my life's pleasures,
and I join with her extended family in celebrating her legacy.



Stanley D. Stevens

Santa Cruz, California

July 24, 2017