Susan Grigg
Susan Leslie Grigg, PhD, 59, wife of the Rev. Justin G.G. Kahn, Sr., died 5 May 2007 at the Mayo Clinic of complications from lymphoma. Born in Chicago, she was the only daughter of the late Wallace and Loretta (Mittman) Grigg. She graduated from Oberlin College and earned an MA and PhD in American History from the University of Wisconsin. She later completed her MLIS at Simmons College.
She began her career as an archivist at Yale University. She was then appointed Assistant Professor and Curator of the Immigration History Collection at the University of Minnesota; next she became head of the Sophia Smith Collection and served as College Archivist at Smith College. Since 1996 she had been head of the Alaska and Polar Regions Collections at the University of Alaska Fairbanks with a joint appointment as Professor of Library Science and Northern Studies; she had also served as Acting Director of Libraries and Interim Dean of Libraries.
She was elected a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists, in recognition of distinguished service to the profession, and was a longtime Certified Archivist, having served on the committee that developed standards for certification. She also served many years on the SAA Editorial Board, chairing it for four years. She was a board member of the Alaska Historical Society, Vice President of the Alaska Library Association, and member of the gubernatorially-appointed Alaska State Historical Records Advisory Board. She developed and led the statewide program to present Alaska historical images online (VILDA).
Her dissertation on the dependent poor of Newburyport, MA before 1860 was published, and she contributed the section on managing archival collections to the standard handbook for college library administration. She published numerous journal articles and reviews in history and library administration and made frequent presentations at professional and scholarly conferences. She was an editor and contributor to the Oxford American National Biography and was a reviewer several times on national panels for National Endowment for the Humanities grants.
Dr. Grigg is survived by her husband; three stepchildren: J. Giles G. Kahn, Jr. of Wheaton IL; Tempe R.K. Vierck and husband, Benjamin, of Ballwin MO; and Peter R.T. Kahn of Olivette, MO. She was also survived by three stepgrandchildren, Rebecca Reeve Vierck, Douglas Alexander Vierck, and Magnus Oliver Vierck, all of Ballwin; and three cousins in Ohio.