Library Research Scholars Program (LRSP)

The Regina M. Legard Fellowship

Regina Murray Legard (April 6, 1951 - August 9, 2017), an alumna of San José State University (BA in English, 1977 and MLS, 1979), is warmly remembered as a lifelong learner who cherished reading, teaching, and traveling overseas. Regina emigrated to the US with her mother from Germany, an eventful trip where she memorably waved her hand and yelled, “Aufwiederschnaps!” from the ship’s railing as they departed.

After graduation, Legard joined the U.S. Air Force, where she served as a Staff Sergeant. After obtaining her MLS from SJSU, she worked as a librarian at Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation's Palo Alto Research Laboratory and then as a teacher in the North Monterey County and Salinas Union High School Districts before retiring in 2011.

Legard ultimately settled in Monterey county with her husband Larry where they raised four children. Larry shares, “Regina loved telling jokes, the more risqué the better. If she heard a joke that she liked, she had an uncanny ability of committing it to memory so she could retell it.”

The Regina M. Legard Fellowship honors her lifelong commitment to learning and her career as a teacher and librarian. The fellowship will support undergraduate students conducting research in the areas of STEM and Library Science as a part of the Library Research Scholars Program. “I wanted to establish this fellowship to encourage and support SJSU students in gaining research skills as undergraduates,” says Larry. SJSU King Library deeply appreciates Larry’s support to establish the fellowship and looks forward to highlighting research projects from future Regina M. Legard fellows.

This article originally appeared in: SJSU King Library. (2019). Regina M. Legard Fellowship. Library News, Fall 2019, 10-11. https://library.sjsu.edu/sites/library.sjsu.edu/files/documents/library_news_fall_2019_newsletter_copy_0_0.pdf