Farewell, Eugene Laper! 

After 32 years of service in the Interlibrary Loan (ILL) office in Lehman College Library, Eugene Laper has announced he will retire at end of the Spring 2025 semester. We thank him for his service, and will remember his dedication to students, faculty, and staff at Lehman College. We will miss his calm demeanor, sense of humor, and colorful and elegant collection of ties.

Gene grew up in Newburgh, NY and graduated from Mount St. Mary Academy in Newburgh in 1978. He went on to Fordham University and received his BA in History in 1982. Gene continued his studies with an MSW from Columbia University’s School of Social Work in 1984. He then worked as a social worker for New York City Human Resources Administration until he came to the Library.

Gene started working part-time in the Interlibrary Loan office in April 1993. He impressed everyone with his efforts to fill many ILL requests as quickly as possible. In 1995 Gene was promoted to CUNY Office Assistant, and CUNY Administrative Assistant in 1998.

While working in Lehman’s ILL office, Gene oversaw the switch from DOS to Windows operating systems, the switch from print to digital for many library resources, and introduction of e-mail as the predominant form of professional communication. He remembers the NOTIS online library catalog, CUNY+ online catalog, Aleph library catalog, and now the Alma library catalog. He also lived through the emergency evacuation of the campus on September 11^th, New York City blackout in 2003, Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and the Pandemic of 2020.

Physics professor Christopher Gerry recalls Gene’s contributions to the College community:

Ever since I came to Lehman College, over 25 years ago, I must have requested from Interlibrary Loan hundreds of articles from Physics journals not immediately available in our holdings, not to mention a few books as well. Gene Laper was always able to find what I requested no matter how obscure the citation I might provide. In the most recent years, he’s often been able to bring in articles on the same day I request them! I suspect I am going to miss having Gene Laper in the library. Best wishes to you, Gene!

Gene lost his dear friend, colleague, mentor, co-conspirator, and shoulder to cry on, former Head of Reference Susan Voge in 2019. Her loss saddens him to this day.

We will all miss Gene and wish him well in his future endeavors.

Stephen Walker