The Long Beach Public Library Foundation is saddened to hear of the passing of our dear friend and Director Emerita Dorothy “Dee” de Ferranti Abrahamse this past week.
Dee lived in many places growing up, but always found a home in the local library. It was there that she developed a love of medieval history, and in 1967 she went on to become one of the first female faculty members in the History Department at CSULB. During her tenure as the University’s first Dean of the College of Liberal Arts, she led 23 academic departments for over 15 years. Dee retired from CSULB in 2007.
Dee was inspired to become a member of the Friends of the Long Beach Public Library after learning about Blanche Collins, the former City Librarian whose battle against censorship in the 1960s led to the group’s formation.
The Library Foundation piqued Dee’s interest in 2003 when she learned about the Foundation’s work supporting the Family Learning Center and Raising-a-Reader programs. She joined the Board of Directors, and served on it for 15 years, with roles on the Executive Committee, Legacy Committee, and as liaison to the Friends of the Long Beach Public Library.
She particularly enjoyed serving on the committee for the annual Long Beach Reads One Book, a program which brought well-known authors to Long Beach for community-wide events. Isabel Allende and Steve Lopez were among her favorites.
Dee was deeply committed to advocacy for our libraries, and was involved in a number of joint advocacy campaigns with the Friends, from a successful effort to prevent the closure of Main Library in 2008 to championing the importance of the library each year as it faced the repeated threat of budget cuts.
In recent years, Dee embarked on a new project, joining Susan Redfield and Linda Haley to form the Long Beach Book Club Project. Together they joined together over 160 Long Beach book clubs, sharing information and rallying their support for our libraries.
Dee Abrahamse is remembered for her thoughtfulness and strong internal guide, positivity, selflessness, and hard work on behalf of our city’s libraries and our community.
