Alfred G. Trump, Jr. Papers

Alfred “Al” George Trump Jr. was born April 23, 1907 in Kahoka, Missouri to Alfred G. (Senior) and Elizabeth (Bonnett) Trump. When he was 11 years old, his family moved to Chicago, where he graduated from Hyde Park High School (1924) and from the University of Chicago with a degree in Germanics (1929). In 1933, he received an A.B.M.S and, in 1938, an A.M.L.S from the University of Michigan.

Prior to arriving at SDSU in Brookings, Trump worked in several libraries, including the Chicago Public Library, University of Chicago Library, University of Michigan Library, Michigan State Law Library, and Virginia Junior College Library in Minnesota. He also served in the US Navy as a Lieutenant (1944-1946) and was stationed in the continental US and Hawaii where he engaged in intelligence work.

Trump came to South Dakota State College in 1948 as a librarian and the only faculty member in the library, which had 90,000 volumes and occupied only the second floor of Lincoln Library (built to serve 900 students). He was named director of its libraries in 1959. He held this position until his retirement in 1972. At his retirement in 1972, the library occupied the entire building, served 6,500 students, and had 270,000 volumes and subscribed to approximately 3,000 journals. Many of the books were housed elsewhere including Hanson Hall (35,000), East Men’s Hall (10,000), Shepherd Hall’s chemistry library (15,000), and the nursing facilities in St. Paul MN (2,000). Trump attributed the growth to the addition of the doctoral program in 1954, “We began subscribing to many of the scientific journals and now have one of the strongest research libraries in the state.”

Following his retirement, Trump continued at SDSU’s library as archivist emeritus and was instrumental in the logistical challenges of its move of from Lincoln Library to the Hilton M. Briggs Library in 1977, after which he fully retired.

Trump was active in library associations, including the state South Dakota Library Association (President 1958-1959), regional Mountain-Plains Library Association (South Dakota’s representative), and national American Library Association (where he was South Dakota’s representative and a member of its governing council). In Brookings, he was an active member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Retired Teachers Association, and SDSU Retired Faculty Association.

On August 22, 1935, he married Anne Harris Arnold, who was born to Jacob H. and Bertha (Harris) Arnold in Wilmington, NC, on February 16, 1908. She grew up in Washington, DC, and Northfield, MN. She attended Oberlin College, graduating Phi Beta Kappa with degrees in history and Latin in 1929. After she earned an MA in history from Case Western Reserve, she worked at Johns Hopkins University Library (1932-1935) and at Michigan State Library (1936). She returned to librarianship in 1960 as Assistant Librarian at the Brookings, SD, Public Library, where she worked until 1986. The Trumps had four children: Michael, Peter, Jeane Gautier, and Andrew. Alfred G. Trump, Jr. died November 26, 1994. Anne Arnold Trump passed away on January 11, 2004.