Dr. Larry Cobb, history professor, has been donating book funding to the Dulaney-Browne Library for 25 years and has now donated close to $25,000.
Cobb began teaching at OCU in 1981 and noticed there were not a lot of resources available to the history department.
We had a four-person department and a $300 budget per year, that’s only about 10 books a year. You can’t support undergraduate research that way. I began donating $100 a month to the library and I give them a list of books for them to purchase.
The list includes books on history, art, music, gay and cultural issues and film. The list has grown to be about 1,400 items long.
Hunter Swink, marketing senior, didn’t know Cobb donated to the library.
“I have taken history courses from Dr. Cobb and I really think he is a great professor,” he said. “I didn’t know he was donating so much to the library I really think that’s great and I’m sure everyone really appreciates it.”
Cobb uses many of the books in his classes and gives students a list with the call number of the book for them to be able to do research. He said:
I am like a big bird, I’m feeding my baby birds worms by giving them these books because if they didn’t have a book available they might just not do research at all.
Cobb also uses the books for his own personal research in writing his autobiography.
“I grew up in the middle of the Civil Rights movement in Atlanta, and a lot of these books tell me the story of how I fit into the last 60 years of history,” he said.
Though the department has grown and more money is available for undergraduate research, Cobb plans to continue making donations to the library for the foreseeable future.
“$100 out of my paycheck does not hurt me, I’m not eating macaroni every night and I think it’s going to a great place,” Cobb said. “I will continue this as long as I’m here and I don’t plan on retiring soon, when you retire you get to do what you want but I am already doing what I want here.”
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