A former librarian at Texas A&M is giving back to the institution that helped launch his library career thirty years ago.  Charles Thurston, who began working as a librarian in the reference department of the Sterling C. Evans Library in 1978, has established the Thurston Family Endowment in the amount of $25,000.   Distributions from the endowment will be used for activities and purchases that advance and benefit collections of distinction at the Cushing Memorial Library and Archives at Texas A&M University.

“With the Thurston Family Endowment, we can fund lectures, exhibits, receptions, special programs, book and manuscript acquisitions, and other activities that highlight and support the collections at the Cushing Library. As a librarian himself, Charles Thurston knows how critical such endowments are to libraries and their special collections,” explained Steven E. Smith, associate dean and director of Cushing Library.

Thurston is currently a reference librarian at the University of Texas at San Antonio.  He is a former president of the Friends of the Evans Library and presently serves on the Friends’ board of directors.