Hoyt R. Galvin Papers, 1916-1993

Hoyt Rees Galvin was born February 26, 1911, on a farm in Pleasantville, Iowa, the son of Guy Galvin and Grace Rees Galvin. He was educated in local public schools. He later wrote that he had never been in a library before landing the library job at nearby Simpson College that helped him fund his education there. He found he enjoyed the work and, after graduating from Simpson in 1932, he went on to study Library Science at the University of Illinois. He completed a second bachelor’s degree and more than half the coursework towards a masters degree in library science before leaving school due to economic conditions in the midst of the Great Depression.

Galvin married his college classmate, Mary Elizabeth Sayre, on May 2, 1935. The couple ultimately had two children, Douglas and Jane Ann.

From 1935-1937, Galvin worked as a librarian for the Tennessee Valley Authority in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1937, he became director of a three-county regional library system based in Huntsville, Alabama.

Then, In November 1940, at age twenty-nine, Hoyt Galvin began work as director of the Charlotte Public Library, a position he would hold for the next thirty years. Major milestones during his tenure included racial integration of the library staff and a nearly tenfold increase in the size of the library collection, as well as substantial growth of facilities. Galvin was instrumental in building support for the bond issue that funded the 1956 Main Library building and several new branches. He also secured public support for a measure to devote 5% of Alcoholic Beverage Control profits to the public library.

Throughout his career, Galvin was active in library professional associations. He served at various times as president of the North Carolina Library Association, president of the Southeastern Library Association, and second vice president of the American Library Association, in addition to being active in multiple committees of those organizations. He regularly published articles in professional journals and became known as an authority on library building programs. This expertise led to a thriving private consulting business, and to additional opportunities to publish, speak at conference, and teach seminars and library school classes.

Galvin retired from the Charlotte Public Library in 1970, but continued to work as a library consultant into the 1980s. In 1984 he calculated that he had undertaken 190 different consulting jobs, involving 116 different building programs or surveys in 33 different states.

In addition to his library work, Galvin was a dedicated member of the Charlotte Rotary Club (serving as president in 1949-1950). He was also involved in the Junior Chamber of Commerce, and taught Sunday school at First Methodist Church.

Hoyt Galvin died on December 22, 1995 as a consequence of a major stroke.