Dianne M. Gutscher, associate special collections curator emerita, died on August 20, 2019, in Portland, Maine.
(The following notice was shared by President Rose on August 31, 2019)
To the Bowdoin community:
I am sorry to inform the College community of the death of Dianne Gutscher, associate special collections curator emerita. Dianne died on Tuesday, August 20, at Maine Medical Center as a result of complications following cardiac surgery. She was seventy-two.
Dianne served the Bowdoin community in Hawthorne-Longfellow Library for thirty years, from 1973 until her retirement in 2003. She began her work at the College at the Library in the government documents department, and soon moved to special collections, where she quickly became an invaluable source of information and guidance on the College’s rare book and manuscript collections and on Bowdoin history for faculty, students, and researchers.
Dianne played an important role in writing the federal grant proposal that established the Department of Special Collections. On her retirement, she was elected associate special collections curator emerita and made an honorary member of the Bowdoin Alumni Association.
Born in 1947 in Bergen, New Jersey, to Arthur and Bernadette Molin, Dianne earned a BS degree in food science at the Pratt Institute in New York City in 1968 and worked as a nutritionist. She also held a CA from the Academy of Certified Archivists. She married Chris Gutscher in 1969 and, in 1972, they moved to Brunswick. Dianne soon found a career and a network of friends at the College library and in the community. She read widely, pursued her interests in genealogical research and history, enjoyed flower gardening, and explored the world in her travels.
Dianne is survived by her husband, Chris, her sister and brother-in-law, Angela and Alex Thor of Syracuse, NY, and two nieces.
A memorial service for Dianne will be held on Sunday, September 8, at 4:00 p.m. at the Brunswick Unitarian Universalist Church at 1 Middle Street. Memorial contributions may be made in Dianne’s name to the Curtis Memorial Library’s Garden and Grounds Fund (23 Pleasant Street, Brunswick, ME 04011).
Dianne will be missed by all those fortunate enough to have known her and to have worked with her—friends and colleagues who were inspired by her knowledge, her intellectual curiosity, and her generosity of spirit.
Sincerely,
Clayton