The Taos News from Taos, New Mexico • 60

iHjW'Wir i Cassandra Manuelito Kerkvliet, president of Dine College, Ferlin Clark, consultant and Virginia Dooley, business manager for the Navajo Gallery watch artist R.C. Gorman sign a memorandum of agreement at his Taos home. As a result Dine College will receive a gift of books from Gorman's personal library. CourtnypM) Gorman gives library to Dine College By R. Scott Geides undreds of books ancient and modern, big and small, worn and uncreased that line the shelves of worth $33,000, and books on his father to the college.

A special display case will house the medal in the new R.C. Gorman Library. The R.C. Gorman Library addition is being built on the second floor of the existing Dine College main library. It is set to open on Gorman's birthday, July 26.

The 35-year-old institution lies in the shadow of Canyon de Chelly, near Gorman's birthplace of Chinle, Ariz. Gorman said he will be attending the opening festivities, which are open to the public and set to include a blessing and native-style celebration. A museum at the college honoring Gorman's work is in the fundraising stage. Various artists are planned to be showcased. Gorman's pieces are to be displayed in a special wing.

The majority of the art will also be donated by Gorman. So what will Gorman do with his empty floor-to-ceiling book shelves? "I'm sure I'll start my collecting all over again," he said. our libraries' holdings, this donation also has tremendous symbolic value because it comes from an individual who is already an important role model for many of our students." While the collection represents various artistic and literary genres, Gorman said the "major" books are American Indian-related art publications and "a lot of biographies." The collection is especially notable for hand-annottted editions of classic Dine texts. Mis father, Carl N. Gorman, was one of the original World War II Code Talkers, Dine soldiers who were recruited by the U.S.

military to develop a top secret code using their native language. The code used against the Japanese in the South Pacific was never broken. Gorman said President George W. Bush presented his father with a Congressional Gold Medal of I lonor commemorating his service. I lowever, Carl Gorman died before he received the honor.

1 lis son also donated the gold medal, said to be It is his hope that the tribal school's students freely use and enjoy the information found in his collection that took decades to amass. "This is for the students and they better get something out of it, or I'll take it back," he said in jest Dine College President Cassandra -Manuelito-Kerkvliet, who contacted Gorman about making a contribution, said she was just as overwhelmed with the volume of works being donated as Gorman was with owning them. "The mere size of Mr. Gorman's private library collection will augment the holdings of the college's libraries," she said, "which will benefit Dine College students, researchers and the communities of the Navajo Nation." Din College serves the residents of the 26,000 square mile Navajo Nation, which spans the states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. David 1 lurley, director of library services for Dine College's Arizona campuses, said, "A major addition to internationally renowned Southwest artist R.C.

Gorman's deliriously adorned Taos casa will soon have a new home and a new purpose. April Gorman officially donated his entire personal library of important works, including noteworthy books on Navajo history, culture and language, to Dine College inTsaile, the first and largest tribally controlled college in the country. The collection also boasts an old song book of hymns that Gorman's grandmother translated from English into his native Dine1 tongue. The text is believed to be one of the earliest books of "Navajo Christian hymns." "I'm overcome with the books I've collected," Gorman said from his in-home studio. "I donated them to a better cause than myself." 22 TEMPO MAGAZINE THE TAOS NEWS JUNE 12-18, 2003.