UT’s longtime law library director dies

The man who took the University of Texas School of Law’s library from the days of traditional print sources into the digital age is dead at the age of 82. Roy Mersky, a UT law professor and the director of the Tarlton Law Library and Jamail Center for Legal Research died May 6 after a brief illness.  According to a UT press release, Merksy started his career at UT law school in 1965, when then-Dean Page Keeton hired him as a professor of law and director of the law library. In the release, Bill Powers, president of the University of Texas at Austin and a former dean of the law school, describes Mersky as “a giant figure” at the law school and in legal education. “He built one of the finest law libraries in the world and helped other law schools and institutions around the world build their own,” Powers writes. Mersky, a decorated World War II veteran, fought in the Battle of the Bulge when he was 17 years old, Powers writes. Mersky, also known as a civil rights advocate, participated in civil rights marches in Selma and Montgomery, Ala., during the 1960s, according to the release. “He left an enormous mark on this world and made it a far better place,” Powers writes. Jeanne Price, Tarlton Law Library's associate director for patron services, says the law school will host a public memorial service for Mersky in the fall.
-- Mary Alice Robbins