A life full of remembering: CSB+SJU head archivist set to retire

Having worked under 18 CSB+SJU presidents during her time, Peggy Roske knows a thing or two about these institutions, and at the end of this semester CSB+SJU will be saying goodbye to Roske, the current CSB+SJU Archivist. She has worked here for 45 years at various library jobs, from reference and instruction librarian to full-time archivist, which began in 2006.

Roske’s story stretches further back in connection with CSB+SJU than just her time working here. Her mother was from St. Joseph, so she would come for visits, and had relatives in the Monastery.

Later, she went to St. Ben’s high school (now the HAB), graduating the year it closed in 1973, and then went to college at CSB+SJU, majoring in English and Humanities. She didn’t have a concrete plan after college, but a few nudges pushed her toward library work.

“They had a very basic early computer program in the career services office that kept telling me I would make a good librarian or a good editor,” Roske said.

Roske started looking for an opening at a library, applying when a friend who worked at Alcuin library told her of a job opening. She applied, but “At first, they hired somebody else who only lasted one day, and then they called me. So, in October 1979, I started working at the library at St. John’s,” Roske said. The libraries merged in 1980, so she worked for both.

Though not a librarian yet, Roske helped in different areas of the library, and was encouraged by her supervisors to go to library school. She took their encouragement and, coming back to help at the library during breaks, obtained her library science master’s degree. With that, she was promoted to a professional position and was a reference and instruction librarian for about 25 years.

Then, Roske was asked to help in the CSB Archives, as the Sisters there, retired history professors, were looking to lessen their work as the main archivists.

“The library director knew I had these archival proclivities of saving things, and I was sort of the go-to person in the library for anyone with questions about CSB or SJU history,” Roske said.

In 2006, Br. David Klingeman retired from the position of SJU archivist, and Roske became the full-time archivist at both schools.

Through her time working as a librarian and archivist, Roske has worked directly on many projects, including being involved with planning for Clemens Library in the 1980’s, several Alcuin Library renovations since the 1980s, and making archival material accessible for public use.

In addition to making material accessible, Roske has also provided multiple presentations to new employees, classes, the Prep School and staff assemblies on topics on the history of CSB+SJU, ranging from Johnnie bread and “wicked nuns” to the Boarding Schools and the university’s’ connection with the Bahamas. Over 100 of her presentations—called “Archival History Lessons”—are available on the Archives’ websites and in Digital Commons.

Additionally, Roske has been a part of finding some of the artifacts in the archives themselves.

“Nails…kept surfacing at my Collegeville neighbor’s garden on land owned by the Abbey, and they were proof of where the monks first lived after they left St. Cloud in 1864,” Roske wrote.

After Roske retires, Br. Eric Pohlman will be taking her place, completing his master’s in library and archival work this December. Pohlman has volunteered on campus in a variety of ways, including volunteer work in the Archives for several years.

Alongside him, Archives Associate Liz Knuth, whom Roske notes has been a great asset to the work of the Archives, will continue helping at both places: in Alcuin’s basement at SJU and in Corona’s basement at CSB.

Though Roske looks forward to traveling and being with family after retirement, among many of her plans, she suspects she will come back to the archives as a volunteer.

“There’re a lot of things on the [archival] tasks list that I never had the time to do. Just looking around…like a box of photos that need identifying, or old videos; they might be useful to someone years from now, but only if we know what event they’re from and who’s in them.”

In the meantime, she encourages students to visit the Archives, or the Archives’ websites, to explore all the resources available.

For example, all of the yearbooks (1907-1995), catalogs and The Record issues (1888-present) are online and searchable there, as well as historical photos, maps and a CSB+SJU timeline.