R. Champlin and Debbie Sheridan Deanship of the Milton S. Eisenhower Library

R. CHAMPLIN SHERIDAN, A&S 1952, and his wife, DEBBIE SHERIDAN, played a unique and indispensable role in enabling the university to fulfill founding president Daniel Coit Gilman’s belief that “There is no such thing as a great university apart from a great library.” Mrs. Sheridan is a member of the Sheridan Libraries Advisory Board. Mr. Sheridan was university trustee and chaired the National Advisory Council from 1990 to 2001. He founded the Sheridan Group in 1967, now one of the nation’s leading scientific and medical publishers.

In 1994, the Sheridans made an extraordinary leadership gift to ensure the vitality of the libraries by increasing the endowment and supporting much-needed renovations. Mr. Sheridan remarked that the library, “the foundation of the university,” was a natural focus for their philanthropy because of his success in printing and publishing. To honor the exceptional generosity of Mr. and Mrs. Sheridan, the Eisenhower Library and its special collections at the John Work Garrett Library, the Albert D. Hutzler Reading Room, and the George Peabody Library were rededicated as the Sheridan Libraries in 1998. Upon opening in 2012, the Brody Learning Commons was added to the family of Sheridan Libraries. Mr. Sheridan died in 2013.