MIRA’s Priscilla F. Bok Library is, along with the MIRA 36-inch telescope, one of the primary supporting elements of the research and education mission of the Institute. Like almost all of MIRA’s activities, it has depended on volunteers to make it the great library it is today. The most important volunteer in the history of the library is undoubtedly Ansley Hill. Early this spring, I visited with Ansley and her long-time companion, Lee Wininger, to learn a little more about this remarkable woman who played such an important role in the development of the MIRA library.

Ansley Spalding Hill was born in Ft. Riley, Kansas in 1916. She married Francis Hill, a career army officer who became the youngest American general in the Second World War. Prompted by her family, who felt that she should have a career to support herself, Ansley chose library science and graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degree in it, which she soon applied, in 1937, to a job in the San Antonio Public Library.

As an army wife, she traveled to and lived in many places. In 1950, she visited the Peninsula and the Hills bought a lot near the Del Monte Golf Course. They built a small house on it, which they rented until 1963 when they moved to the Peninsula. Francis died in 1973. By 1979, Ansley was attending MIRA public lectures with Lee. Shortly thereafter, she volunteered to organize the infant MIRA library which had recently received major donations of books from Priscilla and Bart Bok and later, C.D. Shane of Lick Observatory.

Ansley confides that developing the MIRA library required her to relearn cataloging, updating her experience with the Dewey system to the modern Library of Congress system. She really preferred the excitement of the reference desk but she recognized that, with a young library, we needed the groundwork of a good cataloging system. By repeated visits to the University of California at Santa Cruz libraries, she learned enough to develop the Bok Library journal and book catalogs. Taking MIRA astronomer Dr. Hazel Ross’s astronomy class helped her understand the background of astronomical research. The result was a comprehensive, well-organized, professional-level resource for MIRA astronomers, Friends, and the community.

With the help of other volunteers, Ansley catalogued the many books and journals that had been donated by astronomers around the world to the new library. Of course, squeezing these into the incredibly cramped quarters at 900 Major Sherman Lane was a major task in itself.

Meanwhile, in 1990, Ansley and Lee designed and built a lovely new home on the lot near the golf course. Here Ansley could follow her interests in gardening and alternative medicine. Opening her garden home for others to enjoy, she has been the gracious hostess for several Friends of MIRA social occasions. When MIRA obtained the Fort Ord buildings for the new astronomy center, Ansley oversaw the move of the library to the new quarters and the earthquake-proofing of the new library area. This was also the right time to pass her important duties on to a new volunteer, Claas Shane.