Professor Emeritus Donald W. Krummel passed away on June 25, 2026, in Urbana, Illinois, at the age of 96.
A professor in the School of Information Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from 1970–1997, Krummel was a renowned scholar of American music printing, publishing, and resources.
Krummel was born July 12, 1929, in Sioux City, Iowa. He was fascinated by books from a young age; one of his earliest memories was convincing the high school library to sell him a bound set of Encyclopedia Britannica—only missing one volume—rather than throw it out or donate it to a World War II paper drive.
"The Ninth Edition is pretty impenetrable," he told Linnea S. Martin (MSLIS '97) during a series of interviews for an oral history published in Library Trends in 1999. "It's long articles on bad paper in small type. I did use it, I did browse through it, and it became my introduction to the big world."
The child of a violinist, Krummel briefly played the organ in his father’s church and enjoyed music theory. But he told Martin, "I have a very strong affection for music, but not being a performer, I can never really understand it … On the other hand, with libraries, I feel both the affection and an understanding, although the understanding has changed over the years as the affection has ripened."
He received his bachelor's in music (1951), master's in music (1953), master's in library science, (1954), and PhD (1958) all from the University of Michigan, working as a teaching fellow (1952–1954) and instructor (1954–1956) in music literature while earning his graduate degrees there.
While teaching a class on opera history, he met a master's student named Marilyn Frederick, who was taking the class to fulfill her last elective before her graduation in 1955. They were married from 1956 until her death on March 28, 2025.
He worked as reference librarian for the music division at the Library of Congress from 1956–1961, then at the Newberry Library in Chicago: first as the head of the reference department (1962–1964), and later as an associate librarian from 1964–1969.
"My most meaningful experiences in libraries," he told Martin, "have been ones that were not predictable. They are random rather than routine, with human elements, flesh on the bones … The tribalism of communities, the invisible network of libraries, is very important, and I’ve been more concerned, not with the rules, the laws, the science of it as with just making things work, the processes that make libraries function."
In 1970, Krummel joined the faculty of what was then called the Graduate School of Library Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where he became "a titan in his field," according to Allen Renear, professor and special advisor for strategic initiatives.
"Don was a towering figure who shaped music bibliography as a field of study and put it in conversation with textual scholarship and printing history," Renear said. "He was also a wonderful colleague. All of us will remember his incisive, erudite wit. We relished every encounter with Don. He reminded us what universities are supposed to be."
Krummel taught everything from introductory library science courses, to cataloguing, to library administration. He told Martin he could spend five-to-ten years really developing a course, including lectures, anecdotes, and plans for student projects. He was reluctant to be prescriptive in assignments; he told Martin that when a student in his academic research libraries course asked him how many citations should be included in a bibliography, Krummel replied, "I really can't answer that question. I received a brilliant one once with only three; I've received some bad ones with several hundred."
In fact, he disliked the idea of his discipline being called a science. Martin wrote, "Krummel thinks the library's organic and elusive systems, rather than theoretical models, are the ones on which library practice is based and should be taught."
Professor Emerita and Senior Dean's Fellow Linda Smith (MSLIS '72), remembered that one of her first classes as a master's student was Krummel's Development and Operation of Libraries.
"Professor Krummel was an inspiring teacher," she said. "It was a privilege to continue to learn from him as a faculty colleague for several decades."
She noted that he stayed in contact with many of his students after they graduated and delighted in their accomplishments.
"For over 40 years, Don was my advisor, employer, mentor, friend, and matchmaker extraordinaire," said Michèle Cloonan, dean and professor emerita in the School of Library and Information Science at Simmons University. "He was something of a father figure. He had a remarkable wit, and I will miss that most of all."
Krummel was the one who introduced Cloonan (MSLIS '84, PhD '88) to her husband, Sidney Berger (MSLIS '87), current iSchool adjunct professor and director emeritus of the Phillips Library at the Peabody Essex Museum.
In 1994, the iSchool honored him with a festschrift, "Music Publishing & Collecting: Essays in Honor of Donald W. Krummel," edited by David Hunter (PhD '89).
Krummel retired in 1997 but continued to teach courses in bibliography until 2015.
"Even after his retirement, Prof. Krummel continued to support the school and our students," said Interim Dean and Professor Emily Knox, noting that the Donald W. and Marilyn Krummel Endowment, established in 1997, provides funding for master's students in the iSchool to attend conferences and other educational and professional events devoted to the history of the graphic and artifactual evidence of books. "Their generosity has been instrumental in supporting our students' professional development."
Krummel also served as a faculty member at the Rare Book School from 1990–2008.
He received countless fellowships, awards, and honors, including a Guggenheim Fellowship (1976), the University of Illinois University Scholar award (1991), the American Library Association's G. K. Hall Award (1987), the Beta Phi Mu Award (1999), and three project awards from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
In 2012, the Society for American Music recognized him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.
Krummel was a prolific author, and in addition to his teaching and publications in library science, he wrote and edited several landmarks in music scholarship as well as in bibliography. His seminal Resources of American Music History (1981) provides comprehensive access to the primary materials of American music history. His Bibliographical Handbook of American Music (1987) was honored with the Society for American Music's Irving Lowens Book Award.
Awards and recognition, however, were not what drove him. He simply loved libraries and wanted other people to love them too.
"One of the great things about libraries is that they specialize in the whole world, the range of human knowledge," he told Martin, "and librarians have the privilege of introducing everything, and the responsibility to range widely and imaginatively."
Krummel is survived by his children, Karen and Matthew, and three grandchildren.
At the time of publication, plans for services were unavailable.