Princeton University Library mourns the death of its longtime friend and constant benefactor, Judith McCartin Scheide. The widow of William H. “Bill” Scheide (Class of 1936), who bequeathed the Scheide Library to the University in 2015, Judy was a beloved presence within the Library, and whose involvement and generosity as a Library donor was but one extension of her significant philanthropic work in the broader community.

Judy was Bill's enthusiastic partner in all his book-buying decisions in the last decades of his life. Her own major gifts to the Scheide Library after her husband’s death included important classical music manuscripts and several early Bibles that augmented Bill’s central collecting interest, highlighted by a 5th-century manuscript fragment of Ezechiel 20 (at the time, the oldest Latin biblical manuscript in private hands). For visitors to the Scheide Library, perhaps the most engaging of all her gifts is the rich autograph album collected during the 1840s and 1850s by Arnold Wehmer, musical director at Göttingen University in Germany; it features musical excerpts written out by his many famous dinner guests, who included the composers Felix Mendelssohn, Robert and Clara Schumann, and a still unknown 20-year-old pianist named Johannes Brahms.

Judy’s visits to the Scheide Library and related events in recent years were many. She took particular joy in the annual Spring open-house for the Scheide Scholars Program, an event that she began in the 1990s. There she, like Bill before her, took great pleasure in meeting and getting to know all of the current scholarship recipients, showing magnificent books and sharing stories of how they changed the world. Judy’s presence, spirit, and example will be dearly missed.

Published January 8, 2024

Media contact: Stephanie Oster, Library Publicity Manager