Purdy, Victor W. (Victor Willliam), 1926-2012

Victor Purdy (1926-2012) was a librarian and teacher at Brigham Young University.

Victor Purdy was born on March 4, 1926 to Victor William Purdy and Rhina Anna Steins Purdy. After growing up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Purdy served in the United States Navy during World War II. Following the war, Purdy served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to the North Central States Mission from 1948 to 1950. He attended University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, St. John's College at Annapolis, Md., and finally received his undergraduate degree at Brigham Young University in 1952. Purdy later received a master's degree in library science from Columbia University in 1957 and worked on his PhD at both the University of Wisconsin at Madison and the University of Utah.

Purdy worked at the Fresno State College Library from 1953 to 1954, when he started working at the Brigham Young University library. In 1966 he began to teach at BYU's School of Library and Information Sciences, where he worked until that department closed in 1993. He also taught various classes for the Department of History and Department of Church History and Doctrine.

Purdy married Alice Mary Thalman in 1951. Together they had three daughters and one son. Alice died in in 1996 and in 2002 Purdy married Deanne Moore Craig. Purdy died on April 9, 2002.

From the guide to the Victor W. Purdy papers, 1959-1993, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)