A List
9/3/07

GALLAGHER READING AT SLU CELEBRATES LATE PRESIDENT PISKOR

CANTON - Poet Tess Gallagher will speak and read from her works in an appearance at St. Lawrence University on Monday, September 17, in the Common Room of Sykes Residence Hall at 7:30 p.m. The event, part of the Writers Series, is open to the public, free of charge.

Gallagher's reading is also a recognition of the acquisition by the St. Lawrence University libraries of the poetry collection of the late Frank P. Piskor, former president, and a celebration of his love of books, poetry and libraries.

The author of eight volumes of poetry including Dear Ghosts; Moon Crossing Bridge; and Amplitude: New and Selected Poems, Gallagher is also the author of Soul Barnacles: Ten More Years with Ray; A Concert of Tenses: Essays on Poetry; and two collections of short fiction, At the Owl Woman Saloon and The Lover of Horses and Other Stories. Her honors include fellowships from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Maxine Cushing Gray Foundation Award.

Former University Librarian Richard Kuhta will also speak at the event, about Piskor's book collecting and enthusiasm for libraries. He is the Eric Weinmann Librarian at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.

From the time he met poet Robert Frost while a student at Middlebury College in 1935, Piskor (1916-2006) was an avid reader and collector of books, and especially of poetry. He graduated from Middlebury in 1937 and earned the Ph.D. at Syracuse University in 1950. Piskor began his career at Syracuse in 1939, and over 30 years served successively as a personnel counselor, faculty member, dean of men, vice president and dean of student services and faculties, and vice chancellor and provost. In 1969 he came to St. Lawrence as its 14th president; he retired in 1981 and remained in Canton where he was an active and involved citizen until shortly before his death on March 8, 2006. During his presidency, he oversaw significant growth in many aspects of the University, including the Torrey Wing of Owen D. Young Library. The library's Frost and Edwin Arlington Robinson collections are two among many beneficiaries of his uncommon generosity.

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