Andrew Harlis Horn

Andrew Harlis Horn was born in Ogden, Utah on July 22, 1914, the son of Edward Cooper and Cora (Harlis) Horn. After the family moved to Los Angeles, Horn attended Venice High School and then spent three years as a premed student at Santa Monica Junior College. He received his A.A. degree from SMJC in 1935, and then went on to earn three degrees in history from UCLA, culminating in his doctoral dissertation, entitled German Merchants in England During the First Half of the Fourteenth Century, in 1943. He was the Hattie Heller Scholar in History at UCLA in 1941 and held various positions as research assistant, teaching assistant and lecturer in the early 1940s. During this time, he also worked for a year as a technical writer for the Douglas Aircraft Company.

Horn joined the U.S. Army in November 1943 and was soon assigned to the Educational Reconditioning Branch of the Medical Department, where he planned programs, taught courses and provided counseling to soldiers. He was highly respected for his work in this division. Upon his discharge from the Army in 1946, Horn resumed his academic career and was hired as Assistant Professor of History at Johns Hopkins University in 1946. Finding that he was more attracted to a career in librarianship, Horn left Johns Hopkins after one year to take up a position as Senior Library Assistant at UCLA.

In 1948, he completed a BLS degree at UC Berkeley and was appointed Assistant Head of Special Collections at UCLA, and married Mary Amelia Baier on January 4th of this same year. A talented administrator, he rose through the ranks rapidly, occupying several key library positions and becoming Associate University Librarian in 1952. He left UCLA in 1954 to accept an appointment as University Librarian at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Three years later, he came back to California to become College Librarian at Occidental College in Pasadena.

In 1959, Horn was asked to return to UCLA to help Lawrence Clark Powell organize a School of Library Service. Horn was instrumental in planning curricula and hiring outstanding faculty for the new school, which opened in the fall of 1960. At this time, he was a professor and the Assistant Dean. On Powell's retirement in 1966, Horn became Dean of the library school until 1975, and continued on as Dean Emeritus until 1978. He continued to teach classes until his death in 1983.

Andrew Harlis Horn was a librarian, educator, administrator, printer, bibliographer, and historian. He was widely known and respected among librarians, faculty, and students at UCLA and in the book world generally. Throughout his career, he served on numerous committees for UCLA and for many other prestigious organizations. Along with Lawrence Clark Powell, Horn played a central role in the founding and development of the UCLA library school. Andrew Horn has been acknowledged an outstanding professional in his field in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in American College and University Administration, The Dictionary of International Biography, The Blue Book, and many other directories.

(Compiled by Elizabeth Spatz, courtesy of UCLA University Archives' finding aid for the Graduate School of Library and Information Science - Horn (Andrew) Bio - Bibliographies of the Dean.  Andrew Horn photo from the Bibliogrpahical Reference File at the UCLA University Archives and copyright the Regents of the University of California)  

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