Necrology

James Taylor Dunn '36

Feb. 28, 1912-Sep. 8, 2002

James Taylor Dunn ’36, formerly chief librarian of the New York State Historical Association and the Minnesota Historical Society, and an authority on local history as well as a great benefactor of the College, was born on February 28, 1912, in St. Paul, MN. The third son of John W. G. Dunn, who was engaged in real estate and banking, and the former Alice Monfort, he was a great-grandson of James Wickes Taylor, Class of 1838, who settled in St. Paul in 1856 and became the U.S. Consul in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Jim Dunn prepared for college at St. Paul Academy, whose headmaster described him as “frail” and “a bit of a dreamer,” but “well worth giving a trial.” With that somewhat lukewarm recommendation, Jim was admitted to Hamilton in 1932. He joined the Emerson Literary Society, trouped for three years with the Charlatans, and took virtually every literature course offered by the College. Noted for his “keen taste for edibles” as well as his love of books, he was graduated in 1936.

Jim Dunn thereafter returned to his hometown of St. Paul, where he joined his two brothers in launching Globe, a travel magazine whose internationally known contributors, thanks to Jim’s efforts, included the poet Ezra Pound ’05. Although the magazine was initially successful, threats of war in Europe, which discouraged interest in travel, led to Globe’s demise in 1938. Jim, ever the bibliophile, then came back to the East to enroll in the library science program at Syracuse University. After earning his B.S. degree in library science magna cum laude in 1939, he began his career at the Chemung County Library in Elmira, NY.

In 1942, after only a year as head librarian of the Olean (NY) Public Library, Jim was inducted into the U.S. Army and assigned to an antiaircraft artillery unit. Commissioned as an officer, he was attached for a time to the Royal Air Force in Britain. He later saw action with an antiaircraft battalion in France, Luxembourg, and Germany, and earned four battle stars. Following World War II’s end in 1945, 1st Lt. Dunn was released from active duty, and he returned to his former position in Olean. On December 23, 1946, he was married in New York City to Marie-Catherine Bach, a native of Luxembourg whom he had met while in military service.

In 1948, Jim went to Cooperstown as chief librarian of the New York State Historical Association, working with its director, Louis C. Jones ’30. In that post he also devoted his time to teaching and conducting seminars on American culture, and he began his distinguished work of research on local history. The earliest publication derived from it was his account of the celebrated “Cardiff Giant” hoax.

Jim Dunn left Cooperstown in 1955 and returned to his home state when appointed chief librarian of the Minnesota Historical Society. While occupying that position, he diligently continued his research and writing, most notably a series of works on the St. Croix River, including The St. Croix: Midwest Border River, which was published in 1965 as part of the highly regarded Rivers of America series. His published works, which comprise 58 entrees in Hamilton’s Alumni Collection, also include Marine on St. Croix: From Lumber Village to Summer Haven, 1838-1968, and Saving the River: The Story of the St. Croix River Association, 1911-1986. In addition to his books and pamphlets, he wrote numerous articles that were published in national and regional history magazines. Most of his works reflected his deep love for the Saint Croix Valley, inspired by the happy days he spent at his family’s summer cottage in Marine on St. Croix.

Jim Dunn, who was given the title of research associate upon his retirement from the Minnesota Historical Society in 1972, continued his long involvement in conservation and preservation activities, which encompassed successful efforts to save the Washington County Courthouse from demolition and to include the St. Croix in the Wild and Scenic Rivers Acts of 1968 and 1972. At the signing of the second of the two federal acts by President Nixon in 1972, Jim was singled out for praise by Senators Mondale of Minnesota and Nelson of Wisconsin as “the St. Croix River’s historian and protector – without whose concern the river would not have been saved.”

A former president and life member of the St. Croix River Association, Minnesota’s oldest conservation organization, Jim was the recipient over the years of other accolades for his contributions, including a Certificate of Commendation from the American Association for State and Local History (1990) and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the St. Croix Valley Heritage Coalition (1991). In 1993, he received the award that was perhaps the dearest to his heart when he was named Marine on St. Croix’s Citizen of the Year.

Customarily donating any profits from his publications to the historical and conservation organizations with which he was associated, Jim was also unstinting in his generosity to Hamilton. From boyhood he had an eye for art, and the College’s Emerson Gallery ultimately benefited enormously from his perceptivity. In 1987, he enthusiastically agreed to join Hamilton’s Advisory Committee on the Visual Arts, thereafter regularly traveling from Marine on St. Croix or his winter home in San Antonio, TX, to take an active and creative part in its sessions.

In addition, Jim Dunn’s gifts to the Gallery included dozens of paintings, sculptures, lithographs, watercolors, and drawings, among them an Alpine landscape by the American modernist pioneer Marsden Hartley. His other contributions to the College included books, recordings, and his extensive Globe correspondence with Ezra Pound. In 1994, in recognition of his contributions to the advancement of the visual arts at Hamilton, Jim Dunn’s name was added to the wall of honor in the Emerson Gallery.

James Taylor Dunn, a genial and gentle man whose somewhat rustic appearance and down-to-earth manner belied his wide cultural interests and erudition, died on September 8, 2002, in Roseville, MN. He is survived by his wife of 55 years as well as a brother, Montfort Dunn.

 

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