Page 5 - Windows Spring 2015

Message from the
President

On behalf of the Friends of the TCU Library, I want to thank everyone for their ongoing
support, which means we continue to grow and conserve the materials in the Mary Couts
Burnett Library as well as provide integral support for its growth. For more the 40 years, the
Friends of the TCU Library has enriched the TCU campus with their generosity.

Current members, it’s time to renew your membership. Be on the lookout for your renewal
letter. If you are not a member of the Friends of the TCU Library, you might consider
joining. This coming year, you will get to enjoy and experience many cultural events and
program opportunities that will include library exhibits, book signings, lectures and even
a fundraiser celebration Spring 2016. In Fall 2015, the Friends will host a grand opening celebration of the newly renovated
library, please plan to join us and take a tour of the new facility.

For more information on becoming a member and to check for upcoming events, visit us online at
http://library.tcu.edu/friends/default.asp.

Ed Fritz
President, Friends of the TCU Library

Dinner With Friends

The Friends Dinner was an enjoyable evening of live entertainment and a wonderful
presentation by guest speaker Peter Stark. Peter Stark, a very successful and well-
known adventure and exploration writer, was the guest speaker at the March 17
Friends Annual Dinner.

Stark, entertained guests with details of his most recent book, Astoria: John Jacob Astor
and Thomas Jefferson’s Lost Pacific Empire, a Story of Wealth, Ambition and Survival, tells
the harrowing tale of the quest to settle a Jamestown-like colony on the Pacific Coast.

Stark was born in Wisconsin to an adventurous and outdoorsy family and began
traveling when young in canoes, on skis, and also by more conventional means. He
received a bachelor’s degree in English and anthropology from Dartmouth College and
a master’s in journalism from the University of Wisconsin. After a brief stint in newspapers, and based in Missoula, Montana,
he went on to work as a full-time freelance writer specializing in subjects on the outdoors and adventure, exploration history,
wilderness and indigenous peoples, and the physiology of the human body under extreme stress.

His articles have appeared in Outside (where he is a long-time correspondent), Smithsonian, The New Yorker, the New York Times
Magazine, Men’s Journal and many other publications. His books include Driving to Greenland (essays about the Arctic, 1994); Last
Breath: Cautionary Tales from the Limits of Human Endurance; At the Mercy of the River: An Exploration of the Last African Wilderness; and
The Last Empty Places: A Past and Present Journey Through the Blank Spots on the American Map.

Stark autographed copies of his book after the presentation.

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