The Donohue Rare Book Room and the Gleeson Library lost a good friend with the recent passing of Fauno Cordes on Christmas day. Fauno was a book collector, bibliographer, Rare Book Room benefactor and member of the Gleeson Library Associates. She presented to the Rare Book Room her world-renown collection of Antarctic fiction and continued to make gifts to the collection over the years. At the 1995 Winter Meeting of the Gleeson Library Associates held in conjunction with a Library exhibition of her collection, Fauno spoke on “The Lure of Antarctic Fiction.”
Fauno was a native San Franciscan who spent her career in the field of science, retiring as a nuclear medicine technologist from Mt. Zion Hospital. Her interests were diverse and included astronomy, model rocketry, geography and of course, books—to which her dedication and interest brought her to the Gleeson Library and to the University of California, San Francisco where she was a faithful volunteer in their medical library. I admired Fauno very much and will miss her visits to the Rare Book Room. I will always remember her as stopping for quick visits (frequently on her way to the Farmer’s Market) to make gifts to the collection. It was always a joy to see what treasure she would unwrap from within her tote bag. She was a kind, generous and purpose-driven person. The Donohue Rare Book Room and the Gleeson Library are blessed to have counted her as a friend.
John Hawk
Head Librarian, Donohue Rare Book Room
