Preston Library has an active Friends group which supports library resources, services, and facilities. Each year, Friends organizes and hosts engaging programs at Preston Library for VMI and the local community. Membership is open to the public. Interested individuals are invited to join the Friends by submitting a Friends of Preston Library Membership Form or by giving online (be sure to select Friends of Preston Library from the drop down menu).
Contributions to Friends support library needs and make significant enhancements to VMI’s academic program. For more information about the Friends of the Preston Library, contact Preston Library at (540) 464-7228.
Mr. Charles Horner gave an engaging, thought-provoking talk, laced with humor, on China on Thursday, October 29 at 3:00 p.m. in the Turman Room in Preston Library. His presentation was entitled “Rising China and Its Postmodern Fate,” based on his new book, Rising China and its Postmodern Fate: Memories of Empire in a New Global Context. Mr. Horner provided insights into China’s history and referenced a number of associations with China from the local area (e.g. Mary Price Coulling whose father, Francis Wilson Price, was a missionary to China and sinologist). A sizable number of faculty, cadets, and members of the community enjoyed the talk which was followed by engaging questions and discussions.
Mr. Horner is Senior Fellow at Hudson Institute in Washington, DC. He is a China scholar who pays special attention to how China’s evolving views of its 
modern historical experience and its intellectual and cultural traditions influence contemporary developments.
From 1980 to 1982, Mr. Horner was Adjunct Professor in Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and an associate of its Landegger Program in International Business Diplomacy. During the 1970s, Horner served on the staff of the late Senator Henry M. Jackson and then as Senior Legislative Assistant for Foreign Affairs and National Security policy to the late Senator Daniel P. Moynihan.
A graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, he did graduate work in Chinese history at the University of Chicago and, overseas, from 1967 to 1970, at National Taiwan University and Tokyo University.
Cadet Noah Scribner ’09, received this year’s Frances W. Camper award for his outstanding service and leadership to Preston Library as a Library Cadet Assistant. Throughout this time he demonstrated exemplary leadership, dependability, and resourcefulness.
Joining in the ceremony to honor Cadet Scribner on April 30th, were members of the Friends’ Board and Library staff. Mr. Drummond Ayres, Chairman of the Friends of Preston Library and Col. Don Samdahl, Head Librarian, presented Cadet Scribner with his award. Following graduation Mr. Scribner will serve in the U.S. Army as an armor officer.
Dr. Lewis Sorley provided the Friends of Preston Library with an engaging Spring Program Thursday, March 26, at 3:00 p.m. in the Turman Room of Preston Library. Dr. Sorley spoke on “Adventures in Research” and revealed several fascinating tales of discovery learned in the course of his research. We learned how his scholarly “detective work” tracked down a member of Gen. Creighton Abrams’ World War II tank crew, how rescuing the records of Lt. Col. Harold Cohen from a fire resulted in his receiving the Distinguished Service Cross–fifty years after the war in which he earned it, how he discovered the secret location of Abrams’ command staff tapes, and other tales of research adventures. A lively and informative question and answer session followed and all had a good time.
Dr. Sorley is the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Army Historical Foundation. In 2007, he received the General Andrew J. Goodpaster Prize for military scholarship. This spring he serves as VMI’s Gottwald Visiting Professor of Leadership and Ethics. A third-generation graduate of the United States Military Academy, Dr. Sorley earned his doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. In his academic career he has served on the faculties of West Point and the Army War College. His U.S. Army assignments include tank and armored cavalry unit commands in Germany and Vietnam and staff service for the Secretary of Defense and Army Chief of Staff.
Dr. Sorley’s latest book is Honor Bright: History and Origins of the West Point Honor Code and System.
Garrett Peck '90 and Chairman of the Friends, B. Drummond Ayers, Jr. '57
The Friends of Preston Library is delighted to have Garrett Peck, ’90, as our speaker, Friday, October 17, at 1500 hours in the Turman Room. Garrett is the author of The Prohibition Hangover which is provocative social history of American attitudes towards alcohol since the end of Prohibition which was repealed 75 years ago this year. In his investigations for the book Mr. Peck interviewed hundreds of people on all sides of the alcohol debate and travelled extensively throughout the United States, Canada, Germany, Israel, and other areas of the world.
Mr. Peck is a freelance writer for the alcoholic beverage industry and contributes regularly to Beverage Network. He has also written articles about alcohol for The Washington Post, Wine Spectator, Sante, The Forward, and the Northwest Current. In addition to writing about alcohol, he leads the Temperance Tour in Washington, D.C.
Please join us for what will surely be an interesting and engaging program. Refreshments will be served.
Cadet Zac Kovarik, ‘08, received this year’s Frances W. Camper award for his outstanding service and leadership to Preston Library as a Library Cadet Assistant. Throughout this time he demonstrated exemplary leadership, dependability, and resourcefulness.
Joining in the ceremony to honor Cadet Kovarik on May 13 were members of the Friends’ Board and Library staff. Col. Samdahl, Head Librarian, presented Cadet Kovarik with his award. Following graduation and a term of study at Dartmouth, Mr. Kovarik will serve in the U.S. Air Force.
Cadet Kovarik and Bob Camper, son of Mrs. Frances Camper
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Crisp reads a passage from Goodbye Vienna
The Friends of Preston Library’s Spring Program featured William Crisp, ‘63, Friday, 25 April in the Turman Room of Preston Library. Will read from several of his novels as well as from novels of other writers of spy thrillers such as Len Deighton. He discussed how he writes and how various writers influenced him. These included Deighton, LeCarre, and Hemingway. Will gave an interesting and engaging talk and answered numerous questions from his audience.
Will has written several suspense novels: Spy Trap (1982), The Compleat Agent (1984), and Vengeance is Thine (1986). His latest novel is Goodbye Vienna, published in 2006 by PublishAmerica.
After serving as a rifle platoon leader in Vietnam, Mr. Crisp served as a US Foreign Service officer in Yugoslavia and worked for twenty-five years as an East European business specialist with the Economist Intelligence Unit in Vienna, Austria. In 1996, he returned to VMI to teach in the International Studies program. He is currently working on a non-fiction work about Vietnam.
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 - Mr. and Mrs. Terry Davis in front of the donor plaque that bears his name.
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Members of the VMI community recognized Mr. Terry Davis, ’53, for his generous gift to Preston Library on Wednesday, April 23, 2008. Joining in the ceremony to unveil a plaque to recognize Mr. Davis’ contribution were members of the Friends of Preston Library Board, Library staff, and Associate Dean of the Faculty, Col. Bill Stockwell. The Chairman of the Friends, Drummond Ayres, ’57, Head Librarian, Col. Don Samdahl, and Col. Stockwell thanked Mr. and Mrs. Davis for their kindness and generosity to the Library. |
The Friends of Preston Library hosted their annual Fall Program on Friday, October 5, 2007 at 3:00 p.m. in the Turman Room of Preston Library. Our guest speaker was Colonel Keith E. Gibson, ’77. Colonel Gibson is the Executive Director of Museum Programs and the Architectural Historian at the Institute. His most recent work is entitled Moses Ezekiel: Civil War Soldier, Renowned Sculptor and was the topic of his presentation on October 5. Col. Gibson presented an interesting and engaging program on Moses Ezekiel who survived the Battle of New Market and went on to become a celebrated sculptor.
Frances W. Camper Award winner Danny Plitnik ‘07 is pictured with Mrs. Camper’s son, Mr. Bob Camper. Cadet Plitnik is a graduating cadet assistant. The Frances W. Camper Award recognizes a cadet assistant who has demonstrated excellence in leadership, service and commitment to Preston Library. Cadet Plitnik is currently in medical school with the U.S. Navy.
