Hansen, Ralph W. (Ralph Waldo), 1926-2000

Ralph W. Hansen (b. 1927) pursued a career in archives and libraries in the Western United States for thirty-six years. A native of New York City, he graduated from DeWitt Clinton High School in the Bronx in 1945 and went directly into the military, serving with the U.S. Army Medical Corps from 1945 to 1947. Much of his service was with the 351st Infantry Regiment in Italy, where he achieved the rank of staff sergeant. On his return to the U.S. he moved West and entered college at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah. There he earned both bachelors and masters degrees in history, in 1951 and 1954 respectively. He worked for one year as a social science teacher in Orem, Utah, before being hired as an assistant reference librarian at Brigham Young in September 1953. In 1956, he became University Archivist and Manuscript Librarian at Brigham Young University (BYU). He moved to Stanford University in 1962 to take the position of Curator of the Stanford Collection (University Archives) and Manuscripts Librarian in 1962. Hansen was named Chief Librarian of the Acquisitions Department at Stanford in 1967 while retaining the position of University Archivist. As University Archivist, he gave numerous presentations on Stanford history to university and community groups, as many as thirty or forty a year. While at Stanford, he also earned a masters degree in library science from the University of California Berkeley. In 1979 Hansen moved to Boise, Idaho to become Associate University Librarian at Boise State University. He retired from that position in 1989. Notable achievements in his career included work as the first archivist in the Brigham Young University Archives (1956), organizing the Associates (Friends) of the Stanford University Library (1973), coordinating the restoration of more than 50,000 books damaged by a flood at Stanford (1979), and working as project director of the Senator Frank Church papers processing project at Boise State University (1985-1988). His many publications include "Buchanan's Blunder: The Utah War, 1857-1858," coauthored with Richard D. Poll (Military Affairs 25, 1961), "Mormon Economic Organization: A Sheaf of Documents," coauthored with Leonard J. Arrington (Utah Historical Quarterly 28, 1960), and The Frank Church Papers: A Summary Guide (coauthored with Deborah J. Roberts, 1988). For many years he served as book review editor for the independent journal Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. Ralph Hansen and his wife Lillian, a former kindergarten teacher, remained in Boise after their retirement until moving to Hillsboro, Oregon, in 2011.