The Starfish Thrower Award for 2013 was jointly awarded to Roy Jones and Deborah Rhue at the HSLI Business Meeting on October 7, 2013.
Roy and Deborah were instrumental in the success of the 2013 joint Midwest Chapter MLA/HSLI conference. Between them, they organized all of the people, resources, time, and talent needed to provide education, entertainment, and comfort for over 160 people. We applaud their work and thank them for their service to HSLI.
In his nomination, Roy was also recognized for the promotion of health sciences librarianship, being a teacher, and a mentor. The nomination letter closed with “Roy has helped so many of us like the starfish being saved from the beach.”
The Starfish Thrower Award was first given by HSLI in 2000. The name of the award refers to a story written in 1967 by Loren Eiseley. In the story, a man is walking along the beach picking up live starfish stranded by the tide and throwing them back into the ocean. Another character asks why such a daunting and never-ending task would be undertaken. The star fish thrower replies that he can make a difference for each starfish he saves. The starfish thrower exemplifies caring and generosity of spirit.