Stephen Haines Plum III (known throughout his life as Terry), 70, of Holyoke, MA and Warren, ME, died December 10, 2018. Terry was born in Morristown, NJ to S.H. Malcolm Plum and Susan Applegate Plum. He attended Peck School, Pingry School, and Middlebury College.
He received a Master’s in Library Science from the University of Washington in Seattle and a Masters in Anthropology from the University of Connecticut in Storrs. Terry and Sydney Landon Plum were married for 43 years and took many long walks. Terry was a loving father to Trevor and Hilary.
He enjoyed sporting events in which he and his children participated — tennis matches and soccer games, swimming and cross-country meets were a big part of family life. Later in life, Terry and Sydney kayaked on North Pond, Warren, ME. Terry was a librarian and educator at SUNY Plattsburgh, Middlebury College, and the University of Connecticut in Storrs.
In 2000, Terry was hired by Simmons Graduate School of Library and Information Science to teach and administer Simmons GSLIS-West at the campus of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Massachusetts. He leaves a legacy of librarians working throughout New England. He served as president of the Holyoke Public Library board through a decade of fundraising and renovation, resulting in a restored and vibrant library, which opened in 2013.
In the last two decades of his career, Terry traveled widely, providing instruction in library science to international students and helping establish academic and national libraries in Thailand, Vietnam, Georgia, Kosovo, Serbia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Liberia and Ghana. Terry is survived by his wife, Sydney. His son Trevor and daughter-in-law Brandy Vickers live in Cincinnati, Ohio with their two children, Berit and Valen.
Daughter Hilary and her husband Zach Savich live in Cleveland, Ohio. He is also survived by his brother John E. Plum and wife Mimi Kim Plum of Saddle River, New Jersey, and their two daughters Sabrina and Tamina. Nancy Plum, Terry’s sister, lives in Yardley, Pennsylvania and sings and continues the family tennis tradition in Philadelphia.
Terry’s youngest brother Michael lives in Clinton, New Jersey. Another younger brother, Robert, died in 2014. He will be missed as a brother-in-law and uncle by Sydney’s three sisters and their children and as a son-in-law by Sydney’s mother, Barbara Landon of Tucson, Arizona.
A graveside service will be held in Morristown for family. The family encourages those who want to remember Terry’s life to donate to the Holyoke Public Library or to a local library of their choice. Donations might also be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, whose doctors and nurses cared for Terry during this last illness.
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