Donor Spotlights

The Gary and Pat Leiser Collection is a significant collection of rare books and documents on the Middle East published before 1900, donated from the Leisers’ private library. Gary Leiser, PSU ’69, and Pat Leiser, PSU ’70, pursued Middle Eastern studies at PSU in addition to their majors. This was a life-changing experience for them, leading to Gary’s doctorate at Penn in medieval Islamic history and Pat’s study of Islamic art at the American University in Cairo. They eventually lived in the Middle East for 10 years in various capacities. The Leisers’ donations have helped to make the Middle East holdings at PSU among the best in the western US.

The Armonica Marie Gilford Collection ranges from jazz recordings to sheet music and scores. Armonica was a jazz singer, a renowned lawyer, a professional ski instructor, and a competitive ski racer. Her dedication to uplifting and mentoring women and minority lawyers was only matched by her fierce love for music, reflecting PSU’s mission of creative and intellectual curiosity combined with service. She became an inspiration and colleague to many Portland musicians and a dedicated tutor to local aspiring vocalists. The gift enhances the Portland State University Library’s music collection and the Portland jazz community.

The Butler Award for Library Service was created by Ken and Elsie Butler in 1999. Ken was active in building library collections as the Assistant Library Director and was an advocate for library funding. Ken was very proud of his faculty status as a full professor at Portland State Library, and the award was created to recognize the excellence in library faculty service at PSU. His wife, Elsie “Rusty” Butler was a librarian in the Multnomah County library system and lived a life of dedicated service to her county and patrons. Both Ken and Rusty exemplified the excellence in librarianship we strive for everyday at the Portland State University Library.

The Dark Horse Comics Collection at the Portland State University Library provides a unique legacy for Oregon’s premier comics company. Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by PSU alumni Mike Richardson, Class of 1977, as an offshoot of his comic book retail chain, Pegasus Books. Dark Horse has since grown to become the third largest American comics company. PSU alumni, Neil Hankerson, Class of 1972, joined the company in 1987 and became its Executive Vice President. This gift provides copies of all materials produced by Dark Horse, resulting in a complete and preserved collection of the Dark Horse corpus.