Longtime C.W. Post Professor Frederic O’Hara Dies at 89

Brookville, N.Y. -- Frederic James O’Hara of Bayville, N.Y., a founding professor of the Palmer School of Library and Information Science at the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, died May 21 at age 89.

Hired in 1963 to help the fledgling Palmer School earn accreditation by the American Library Association, O’Hara went on to become a highly popular professor at C.W. Post and taught courses that proved to be forerunners of the Palmer School’s undergraduate, graduate and doctoral degree programs in library and information science.

“His contributions were immense, not only to the Palmer School of Library and Information Science but to the entire field,” said John Regazzi, dean of the College of Information and Computer Science at C.W. Post, of which the Palmer School is a unit. “He was respected and admired by his Palmer students and many of the librarians on Long Island.”

O’Hara’s specialty was government documents, and he was instrumental in launching the Government Information Department of the B. Davis Schwartz Memorial Library. In 1968, he wrote his first book, “Over 2,000 Free Government Publications.”

“I worried that it might not fly,” O’Hara recalled in the Palmer School’s newsletter upon his retirement in 1987, “so I went to Macy’s at Roosevelt Field and took it from the back row of paperbacks and moved it up front. It sold 49,000 copies before going out of print.” O’Hara wrote review columns and books on government documents throughout his career.

In the same essay, O’Hara praised his colleagues and students at C.W. Post. “I’ve taught on other campuses ... but I’ve not seen any faculty on any campus that could match the faculty and staff we have here,” he wrote, adding that the students “don’t come any better anywhere.”

After retirement, O’Hara enjoyed reading to children at the Bayville Public Library and was known occasionally to wear the hat from “The Cat in the Hat” by Dr. Seuss.

O’Hara is survived by his wife, Florence O’Hara, and children Frederic O’Hara Jr. and Susan O’Hara.

A memorial Mass will be celebrated at St. Gertrude Church in Bayville on Monday, June 11, 2007 at 2 p.m. Donations for a memorial tree at C.W. Post may be sent to Mary M. Lai, Long Island University Center, 700 Northern Boulevard, Brookville, N.Y. 11548-1327. Contributions in excess of the cost of the tree will be donated to the Palmer School's Scholarship Fund.

Posted: June 6, 2007