Robert M. Warner (1927-2007)
Dean of the School of Library Science 1985-86
Dean of the School of Information and Library Studies 1986-92
Robert M. Warner was the sixth archivist of the United States, from July 1980 to April 1985, appointed to the post by President Jimmy Carter.
Warner led the agency during one of the most important periods in its history: the transformation from a division of the General Services Administration to an independent executive agency. He won his four-year fight for independence on Oct. 19, 1984, when President Reagan signed legislation that removed the National Archives from the GSA and renamed the agency the National Archives and Records Administration. It was one of very few independent government agencies created during the Reagan presidency. In 2005, the renovated NARA Research Center in Washington, D.C., was named the Robert M. Warner Research Center in his honor.
Robert Warner was born in Montrose, Colorado, in 1927. He attended Muskingum College, graduating in 1949, and earned an MA (1953) and a PhD (1958) in American history at the University of Michigan. He joined the Michigan Historical Collections in 1957, was promoted to assistant director in 1961 and served as director from 1966 to 1980.
He was appointed lecturer in history at U-M in 1961 and was promoted to associate professor in 1966 and professor in 1971. In 1974, he was also named professor of library science. From 1980 to 1985, Warner was on leave from the university to serve as archivist of the United States. During his time at NARA, he also served a term as president of the Society of American Archivists.
He returned to Michigan to take up the position as dean of the School of Library Science, which became the School of Information and Library Studies in 1986; he held the deanship until 1992. As dean, Warner presided over the school's expansion, the strengthening of its curriculum and its renaming as the School of Information and Library Studies. During his tenure, leading library schools across the country closed, such as at Chicago and Columbia. He helped avoid this fate at U-M by expanding the curriculum, and with his archivist background, introduced an emphasis on archival studies.
Warner was granted the lifetime title of University Historian in 1992 and continued as such after retiring from active teaching in 1996.
During his time at the Michigan Historical Collections, Warner oversaw fundraising for the Bentley Historical Library to house the university’s collections. He also led the negotiations that resulted in U-M being selected as the site for the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Warner was known for his substantial contributions to his profession. His early book on the administration of the modern manuscript library remains a classic text on the subject. In the early 1970s, he established a course of study for the preparation of archivists in the School of Library Science, one of the first such courses in the U.S. His last book, “Diary of a Dream” (1995), is a memoir of the National Archives independence movement, which he considered his greatest achievement.
Warner died from cancer in 2007 at the age of 79.