Delaware Campus Library Blogs

Mary Alice Peeling, Head of Outreach Services/CALR Librarian, has been a familiar face at the Reference Desk for over 30 years. After graduating from Hood College and completing her library science degree at Villanova University, she started working at the Delaware Law School Library. Also known as Murie, she earned her J.D. in 1991, after the school changed its name to Widener, and passed the PA bar exam that summer. In October of the same year she married John Pachkowski, a Widener alumnus who currently also works at our Reference Desk on Saturdays. Murie grew up in Concordville, PA, where she and John now live in the early 19th century stone farmhouse her parents bought before she was born. The house is on the National Historic Register and is also shared by five cats and a dog.

Murie is a member of the Concordville Historical Society. She and John are active members of St. John’s Episcopal Church, whose congregation was first established in 1702. For many years Murie has been an enthusiastic supporter of the Girl Scouts Council of Eastern PA. She spends many hours creating beautiful quilts, some of which she uses as wall hangings in her office. She has been involved in so many facets of our library that she is known as the library’s “institutional memory.” Besides coordinating the Lexis and Westlaw services for the campus, conducting training sessions on Lexis and Westlaw, and promoting the library’s services to local attorneys, Murie also teaches Advanced Legal Research with Mary Marzolla.