Planned Gift Celebrates Donor's Passions

MaryJo Price's M'01 earliest recollection is her collective love of books and nature. Both led to her long career at Frostburg State University, and both led her to create, with her late mother, the Cooley Price Library Materials Fund, an endowment to support the special collections at FSU's Lewis J. Ort Library.

Price, who retired as a special collection and reference librarian in 2018, set up the endowment to purchase books, in both printed and electronic formats, for the University.

"The two things I remember I could do were swim and read," said Price who grew up in Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania, just south of Lake Erie. One of her memories is picking up her father's copy of Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer" and reading the novel cover to cover. As a young girl, she also spent her days in the community library sitting on a radiator looking out the window to a small lake, reading book after book.

Price was first a music major then a geography major in college before pursuing her Master of Library Science at the University of Denver.

"I took to it like a fish to water," she said of her library studies, especially in the research field. "My curiosity is unbounding."

After a series of library jobs and a divorce, Price moved to Frostburg with her two young daughters in late 1982. She held several positions in the campus library before being assigned to the University's special collections. There, her curiosity and problem-solving skills helped students, faculty and community members who were stumped with questions and research needs.

"A big part of my library love is finding the resources to help anyone out," she said.

But she also knew what limited resources were available at Frostburg. When it came time for Price's mother, the late Bernadene R. Cooley, to write her will, Price encouraged her to set up a planned gift to purchase new materials for FSU's special collections. When her mother passed away in 2005 and the fund was realized, the event inspired Price to create an endowment in her own will.

Having emeritus status, Price is still actively involved with the selection of materials. The fund supports the interests of both Price and her mother including regional history, music, botany, geology, genealogy, women's studies and disabilities/medical science. The endowment is also used to secure that "pertinent second copy" of a book to keep on reserve while the other copy is circulated "in the stacks."

Since retiring from FSU, Price continues to help others in the region with their research needs. She is an active member of the Allegany County Master Gardeners organization, a part of the University of Maryland Extension program, where she lends her expertise investigating local flora. But Price's main loves will always be books and libraries. She feels indebted to the place that helped her and her children put down roots and grow.

"Frostburg was a lifesaver. It gave me a job. It gave me an income. It gave me a community," she said with a spirit of gratitude. "I will never stop supporting the library."

To make your own planned gift to Frostburg State University contact Liz Nelson, Planned Giving officer, at [email protected] or 301-687-3163.