Mary G. Creaghan, a Loyola High School librarian who during her nearly four-decade career helped generations of students appreciate the world of books and letters, died in her sleep Saturday at St. Elizabeth Nursing and Rehabilitation Center in Southwest Baltimore.
She was 98.
Mary Gabriel Creaghan, the daughter of a contractor and a homemaker, was born in Marriottsville and raised in Pikesville.
She was a 1929 graduate of St. Joseph Academy in Emmitsburg and earned her bachelor's degree in English in 1933 from St. Joseph College, also in Emmitsburg.
Miss Creaghan worked as a librarian for three years in the Canton branch of the Enoch Pratt Free Library before becoming librarian in 1936 at Loyola High School.
Miss Creaghan early on established a lasting reputation as a no-nonsense librarian who expected students to respect the sanctity of her library and the students who were reading or studying there.
"She was a very formidable lady and one we feared. For many years, she was the lone female member of the faculty," said the Rev. Michael J. Roach, a Loyola High School graduate who is now pastor of St. Bartholomew Roman Catholic Church in Manchester.
"She took nothing off anybody and put the fear of God in us. In those early years, I was scared to death of her, but later on, we became close friends. She really was quite an interesting person and a great gal," he said.
The library was her sole "realm and dominion," said Father Roach, and only the unwise would risk arousing her considerable ire if they dared challenge her standing order that strict silence be maintained at all time.
"I can still hear her shoes clicking across the floor if she heard any talking or whispering - or worse - laughing coming from one of the library's nooks and crannies," said Father Roach.
"The more perceptive students warmed up to her even though she had a formidable exterior. She really was one of my great memories of Loyola," he said. "She was a real hoot. A great character."
Dr. Vincent deP. Fitzpatrick III is a longtime Loyola High School faculty member, author and curator of the H. L. Mencken Collection at the Enoch Pratt Free Library.
"She brooked no nonsense. She also read everything and remembered it all and was boundlessly generous with her time as we discussed the world of books," Dr. Fitzpatrick wrote in an e-mail. "Mary Creaghan helped to teach me an invaluable lesson: the importance of the reflective life, the life of the mind."
Douglas W. Campbell, who graduated in 1968 from Loyola High School and is now a pharmacist at Charlesmead Pharmacy in Cedarcroft, recalled his first meeting with Miss Creaghan as being less than auspicious.
"She threw me out of the library on my first visit for talking," said Mr. Campbell, with a laugh.
"I later volunteered in the library and we became friends. She was a very sweet lady with a charming smile but stern when it came to her library," he said.
He recalled her generosity and willingness in ordering books or magazines if a student expressed an interest in a certain subject.
"She was very knowledgeable about many things and we had many conversations. Once you got to know her, she really was a very sweet lady," Mr. Campbell said.
"Not much went on in the library that she didn't know about," said John Weetenkamp, a 1965 graduate and former English teacher at the school, who is now director of its Ignatian Mission and Identity program.
"Miss Creaghan really loved what she did in an age when books were more symbolic with learning," he said.
The Loyola High School library is named for Miss Creaghan, who retired in 1975.
Miss Creaghan, who moved from Pikesville to Dumbarton Road in Rodgers Forge in 1970, was an avid reader and book collector.
"She loved reading and passed that along to her nieces and nephews," said a nephew, Stephen G. Creaghan of Boxboro, Mass. "She collected books - not rare books - but books that she wanted to read. She had piles of them."
Miss Creaghan, a devout Roman Catholic, was a communicant of St. Pius X Roman Catholic Church in Rodgers Forge.
In 1975, when Pope Paul VI canonized St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the founder of the American Sisters of Charity and the first native-born American to become a saint, Miss Creaghan traveled to Rome for the ceremony.
She enjoyed crocheting afghans for her nieces and nephews and taking them on trips when they were children and later teenagers. She liked walking and was an avid Orioles fan and a bird watcher.
A Mass of Christian burial was offered Wednesday for Miss Creaghan at St. Charles Borromeo Roman Catholic Church in Pikesville, which she had attended for years prior to moving to Rodgers Forge.
Also surviving are a brother, Robert E. Creaghan of Pikesville; four other nephews; and two nieces.