Denis Grogan (1930-2024)

Denis Grogan died on 5 October 2024 two days before his 94th birthday. He had been a resident of the Hafan y Waun Dementia Care Home for several years. He leaves three sons and a daughter.

Denis was born at Bolton and educated at the Thornleigh Salesian College in Bolton and at Manchester University, where he read English. After leaving university he joined Manchester City Libraries, initially working at branch libraries in South Manchester, but afterwards moving to the Central Reference Library where he remained for more than a decade. In the early 1960s he was appointed Tutor Librarian at the newly established Stockport College of Further Education. In October 1964 Denis was one of the first four appointments to the new College of Librarianship Wales (CLW), as head of the Bibliographical Studies Department, moving to Aberystwyth in January 1965, He remained at CLW throughout its 25-year existence.

While at Aberystwyth, Denis published several successful textbooks on practical aspects of reference work and information seeking, based on his experiences in Manchester. These were reprinted in both the UK and overseas and remained the standard works on their subjects until the coming of the World Wide Web. He contributed articles to academic journals on developments in reference publishing and persistent issues in education for librarianship. He was a founder member of the Aberystwyth Bibliographical Group and served as its Chairman from 1974 until 1978. He also contributed ‘"The pencil of nature" early photographically-illustrated books,’ in January 2009.