The Oakland University Libraries faculty and staff were shocked and saddened by news of the sudden passing of our colleague and friend, Associate Professor Frank Lepkowski, who had recently celebrated his 59th birthday.

Frank came to Oakland in 1985 and held numerous positions throughout his career: he was the library’s coordinator of instruction for many years, he served as Associate Dean, he was a Writing 160 instructor. Most recently he was enjoying his role as Humanities Librarian, working with students and faculty in the Honors College, the English department and the Cinema Studies program. Frank’s relationship with the English department was a long-standing one, having received his Master of Arts in English from Oakland in 1992. Frank was passionate about higher education, and he was passionate about Oakland.

We knew Frank as a Renaissance man who spoke equally eloquently about Springsteen, Dylan and Thelonious Monk; Kurosawa and John Ford; the Mars landing and dark matter; Emerson and Thoreau. He was a poet, a scholar, and a mentor to our junior faculty. And he had an unmatched vocabulary that left many of us reaching for dictionaries upon reading one of his emails.

The OU Libraries faculty and staff send our heartfelt condolences to Frank’s family and friends; we hope that they are able to find some measure of comfort in knowing the enormous impact Frank had on this university, his colleagues and, most especially, our students. We will miss him dearly.

 

Education:

• Bachelor of Arts in English, Cornell University 1978.
• Master of Arts in Library Science, University of Michigan, 1982
• Master of Arts in English, Oakland University, 1992.

Honors & Awards:

• Phi Beta Kappa, 1978
• Beta Phi Mu, 1982
• Fulbright Fellowship, Central American University, Nicaragua, 1987-1989.
• Oakland University Faculty Recognition Award, 1999.

Publications:

Articles

• "The Librarian, the Machine, or a Little of Both: A Comparative Study of Three Information Literacy Pedagogies at Oakland University" (with Elizabeth W. Kraemer and Shawn V. Lombardo). College & Research Libraries, v. 68, no. 4, July 2007, pp. 330-342.
• "Information Literacy and the Returning Master's Student: A View from the Library Side" (with Anne T. Switzer), in: Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education (18th: 2007: San Antonio). International Conference Annual (Chesapeake, VA: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 2007) pp. 1343-1348.
• "Implementing Library Instruction for Freshman Composition on WebCT: the Oakland University Experience," in: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare & Higher Education (6th: 2002: Montreal). Proceedings of E-Learn 2002 (Norfolk, Va.: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education, 2002) pp. 1796-1798.
• "Politics as unusual: academic library Web site development in its institutional context," in: Conference on Integrated Online Library Systems (15th :2000 :New York, N.Y.). IOLS 2000: integrated online library systems (Medford, NJ: Information Today, 2000) pp. 93-101.
• "`How are we to find holiness'?: The Religious Vision of A. R. Ammons," Twentieth Century Literature, v. 40, no. 4, Winter 1994, pp. 477-498.
• "Attitudes of Academic Librarians Towards CD-ROM Indexes and Print Cancellation" (with Kristine Salomon Condic), RQ, v. 34, no. 1, Fall 1994, pp. 48-58.
• "John Ashbery's Revision of the Post-Romantic Quest: Meaning, Evasion, and Allusion in Grand Galop," Twentieth Century Literature, v. 39, no. 3, Fall 1993, pp. 251-265.
• "The Closed-Stack Model and the Culture of Librarianship in Nicaraguan Academic Libraries," Third World Libraries, v. 3, no. 1, Fall 1992, pp. 62-67.
• "The Discreet Charm of the OED: The Oxford English Dictionary, Second Edition, on CD-ROM," CD-ROM World, v. 8, no. 1, Jan. 1993, pp. 84-90.
• "SilverPlatter's MLA International Bibliography on CD-ROM: Recent Literary Studies for End-User Searching," CD-ROM Librarian, v. 7, no. 10, Nov. 1992, pp. 35-40.
• "SportDiscus CD-ROM: Access to Sports Information," CD-ROM Librarian, v. 6, no. 8, Sept. 1991, pp. 41-44.
• "MathSci Disc: A CD-ROM Mathematics Index," CD-ROM Librarian, v. 5, no. 8, Sept. 1990, pp. 28-30.
• ["Three Biographies of Wallace Stevens"], Biography: An Interdisciplinary Quarterly, v. 11, no. 4, Fall 1988, pp. 326-29.
• "Saving Poetry," Library Journal, Dec. 15, 1983, pp. 2304-06.

Poems

• "Lake Erie Serenade," Sycamore Review, v. 4, no. 2, Summer 1992, p. 18-19. Reprinted in: Black River Review, 1992, p. 22.
• "Thinking Seriously About Life," Sycamore Review, v. 4, no. 2, Summer 1992, p. 20.
• "Springtime in the Unconscious," Kansas Quarterly, v. 21, no. 1-2, Winter/Spring 1989, p. 242.
• "Hard Labor," Kansas Quarterly, v. 21, no. 1-2, Winter/Spring 1989, p. 247.
• "Going Places," Kansas Quarterly, v. 17, no. 1-2, Winter/Spring 1985, p. 288.
• "Mid-February Love Song," Kansas Quarterly, v. 17, no. 1-2, Winter/Spring 1985, p. 287.
• "Nocturne for Anvil and Hammer," Negative Capability, Summer 1983, pp. 36-37.
• "Two Poems Based on Fact," Texas Review, Summer 1980, p. 99 (reprinted in: 1981 Anthology of Magazine Verse and Yearbook of American Poetry).

Interview

    Hoffert, Barbara, "A Reviewer Abroad: Teaching Library Science in Nicaragua," Library Journal, Aug. 1990, p. 114.

Book Reviews for Library Journal

I enjoyed the opportunity to review books of poetry and criticism for several years. Those which have left a particularly good impression in retrospect I have indicated with "**".

• Swander, Mary. Heaven and Earth House. May 15, 1994, p. 77.
• Alegria, Claribel. Fugues. Dec. 1993, p. 104.
• **MacDiarmid, Hugh. Selected Poetry. Nov. 15, 1993, p. 82.
• Very, Jones. The Complete Poems. Aug. 1993, p. 109.
• Poems for a Small Planet. June 1, 1993, p.128.
• Doty, Mark. My Alexandria. Apr. 15, 1993, p. 94.
• **Williams, William Carlos. Paterson. Dec. 1992, p. 146.
• After Aztlan: Latino Poets of the Nineties. Oct. 1, 1992, p. 91.
• Ashbery, John. Hotel Lautreamont. Sept. 1, 1992, p. 179.
• Blumenthal, Michael. The Wages of Goodness. Apr. 15, 1992, p. 96.
• Lea, Sydney. The Blaineville Testament. Dec. 1991, p. 150.
• Conarroe, Joel, ed. Six American Poets. Nov. 15, 1992, p. 86.
• Kinzie, Mary. Autumn Eros. Sept. 15, 1991, p. 82.
• Padilla, Heberto. A Fountain, a House of Stone. Sept. 1, 1991, p. 195.
• Baker, David. Sweet Home, Saturday Night. July 1991, p. 100.
• The Forgotten Language. June 15, 1991, p. 81.
• McGrath, Thomas. Death Song. Feb. 15, 1991, p. 197.
• Boland, Eavan. Outside History. Nov. 15, 1990, p. 74.
• **Heaney, Seamus. Selected Poems, 1966-1987. Nov. 1, 1990, p. 93.
• The Best American Poetry 1990. Sept. 15, 1990, p. 80.
• **Simon, Maurya. Speaking in Tongues. Aug. 1990, p. 113.
• **Bogin, Nina. In the North. May 15, 1990, p. 79.
• Harrison, Tony. V. and Other Poems. Jan. 1990, p. 114.
• Cole, Henri. The Zoo Wheel of Knowledge. Dec. 1989, p. 127.
• Harrison, Tony. Selected Poems. July 1987, p. 81.
• Conran, Tony. Welsh Verse. June 1987, p. 115.
• **Voigt, Ellen Bryant. The Lotus Flowers. May 1, 1987, p. 72.
• Clampitt, Amy. Archaic Figure. Mar. 15, 1987, p. 80.
• Yenser, Stephen. The Consuming Myth: The Works of James Merrill. Feb. 15, 1987, p. 149.
• **Jimenez, Juan Ramon. God Desired and Desiring. Dec. 15, 1986, p. 115.
• Silkin, Jon. The Ship's Pasture. Nov. 1, 1986.
• Richardson, Joan. Wallace Stevens: The Early Years, 1879-1923. Sept. 15, 1986, p. 82.
• Myers, Jack. As Long As You Are Happy. June 15, 1986, p. 70.
• Rosenberg, Liz. The Fire Music. May 1, 1986, p. 122.
• Dubie, Norman. The Springhouse. Apr. 1, 1986, p. 153.
• **Cassity, Turner. Hurricane Lamp. Feb. 15, 1986, p. 183 (Reprinted in: Contemporary Literary Criticism, v. 42, p. 99).
• **Knoepfle, John. Poems from the Sangamon. Dec. 1985, p. 114.
• Mackey, Nathaniel. Eroding Witness. Dec. 1985, p. 114.
• Smith, Dave. The Roundhouse Voices: Selected and New Poems. Nov. 1, 1985, p. 100.
• Williams, William Carlos. Something to Say: William Carlos Williams on Younger Poets. Oct. 1, 1985, p. 102.
• **Bates, Milton J. Wallace Stevens: A Mythology of Self. Aug. 1985, pp. 96-97.