Mildred Nilon
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Nancy Mildred Nilon (July 26, 1920 – September 30, 2017) was the University of Colorado Boulder (CU)’s first African American librarian. CU created a scholarship in honor of her and her husband, Charles, who was CU's first African American faculty member.[1]
Nancy Mildred Harper (who went by the name Mildred) was born July 26, 1920, in Montgomery, Alabama. She was the youngest of three children of Lemuel Paul Harper and Fannie Harper. Her father's job as a railroad mail clerk made her family slightly better off than most African American families at the time, which allowed her to attend Alabama State Laboratory High School. However, her race and gender limited her career choices. She took a position teaching but did not enjoy it, so she returned to school and obtained a master's degree at Atlanta University in library science.[2]
Career
Nilon held a series of library jobs in Atlanta, Alabama, and Detroit until her husband, Charles, accepted a job teaching in the University of Colorado's English department in Boulder, Colorado, in 1956. In 1962 she was offered a position with the University of Colorado Libraries helping with an emergency staffing situation. CU asked her to return in the fall of 1962 to work in the library's General Reference and Interlibrary Loans section. She was eventually appointed assistant director for public services, a position she held until her retirement in 1987.[2] She was CU's first African American librarian.[1] In 1986 she won the University of Colorado Boulder's Robert L. Stearns Award for "outstanding service or achievement."[3]
Family
Mildred Harper met Charles Nilon at Alabama State University and they married in 1953. They had a son, Charles Nilon, Jr., who graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta.[2] Charles Nilon, Jr., is now a faculty member at the University of Missouri.[4]