Bill Meneray retires, May 2009

Wilbur E. “Bill” Meneray is retiring this month from his position as Assistant Dean for Special Collections, Howard-Tilton Memorial Library. Dr. Meneray received his PhD. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a specialty in Latin American and U.S. history. He taught for several years in Guatemala before coming to Tulane University as manuscripts librarian in 1972. He has taught courses in colonial Louisiana, surveys of Louisiana and U.S. history, the modern urban United States, and Caribbean revolutions. Dr. Meneray has served on the Board of the Louisiana Landmarks Society, the New Orleans Civil War Round Table, the Memorial Hall Foundation, the Louisiana Historical Association, and the U.S. Center for the Civil War. He’s also been active in the Society of American Archivists, the Rare Books and Manuscripts Association, the Southern Archives Conference, Southern Historical Association, the Louisiana Historical Association, the Society of Southwest Archivists, the Louisiana Association of Museums. He has often given talks for these groups on archives, Louisiana history and Civil War history. For many years, he has managed the annual Friends of the Library book sale.

During his administrative library career, he supervised the renovation of Jones Hall, the move of Special Collections from the main Howard-Tilton building to Jones Hall, and the Special Collections recovery efforts after Hurricane Katrina. We congratulate him on this important milestone of his life, and wish him all the best in the future.


Posted by Susanna Powers