Hatch, Benton L. (Benton Le Roy), 1913-1988

Born in Kittery, Me.; attended Yale University; later worked as a cataloger at the library of Colby College, Waterville, Me., and in 1954 began working at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, where he eventually became associate librarian for special collections, retiring in 1981 and subsequently moved to Eliot, Me.; collector of Maine and New England ms., photographs, and other materials in many formats, many of which he subsequently gave to the Fogler Library special collections at the University of Maine.

Benton L. Hatch was born in Kittery, Maine on January 11, 1913, the son of Edgar and Bertha Rounds Hatch. After attending college for one year in Massachusetts, he transferred to Yale in 1933 and graduated in 1935 with a concentration in classics. After spending a few years working at Sterling Library at Yale and for the Maine Forest Service and the Maine Seaboard Paper Company, he began work as a cataloger at the library at Colby College in Waterville, Maine. He then moved to the library at the University of Massachusetts, first to a position in acquisitions and then as Associate Librarian for Special Collections, retiring in 1981. He was also an author and a collector of materials in many formats on Maine and New England history and had an extensive personal library of such materials. Hatch moved to Eliot, Maine after retiring and died there on January 8, 1988.