In memoriam: Patrick Quinn, 1942–2025

Patrick Quinn, former Northwestern University archivist, died January 3. He was 82.

For 34 years until his retirement in 2009, Patrick led University Archives, where he was my mentor. He built our archival program from a modestly sized, largely antiquarian collection of school newspapers, course catalogs, photographs, and clippings into a huge, modern repository. The noteworthy collections he acquired as archivist are too numerous to recount.

Patrick was highly active in professional societies including, most notably, the Society of American Archivists, which honored him as a fellow in 1984. He was also a founding member of both the Midwest Archives Conference and the Chicago Area Archivists. Politically engaged throughout his adult life, Patrick participated in the civil rights movement in the mid-1960s and in various politicians’ campaigns thereafter. At Northwestern, he was a popular and highly engaging speaker in classrooms and at alumni events.

My own friendship with Patrick began in 1976, on my first visit as a student to University Archives for a class assignment. The ruddy-faced man at the desk saw my full, formal name on the request slip — Kevin Barry Leonard — and knew at once I had been named for the Irish republican patriot memorialized in a song well-known to all Irish people. Patrick and I were off to the races, maybe even the Irish Derby. We engaged in lightly competitive banter about Ireland’s history; he knew a lot about James Connolly, the Irish labor leader, while I felt more at home with the saints and mystics. Within 15 minutes, he made me a member of the department’s staff.

Patrick set me on my occupational path, for which I am immensely grateful. Watching him engage with patrons and colleagues, I learned and mimicked a good deal of his personality when I succeeded him as University archivist. I hope, somewhere along the way, I have greeted you with a smile, a kind word, or a joke. If I have, consider that a gift from Patrick.