by Susan Jordan
A native of New York City, Bruce Woolley came to Rochester 45 years
ago to earn a Ph.D. in history at the U of R. Returning to the
University from two years in the U.S. Army (drafted, not his idea of a
good time), he was a member of the Gay Liberation Front as a River
Campus graduate student.
Retired in 2009 after a career in college administration, Bruce
volunteered to help out at the Gay Alliance Library when he
discovered it crowded into a very small room in the 5th floor office
suite and was also asked to join Shoulders To Stand On, the Gay
Alliance’s heritage committee. A passionate lifelong reader who sought
out gay books when they were far fewer and often hard to find, he views
the Gay Alliance Library with its more than 6,000 volumes as an
important community resource and is always pleased to help library
patrons to discover authors and works that are new to them.
As a trained historian, Bruce cares about preserving our past
and gladly descends to “the dungeon” to work on projects in the Gay
Alliance Archives. Because so much of our gay and lesbian past was
spoken among cognoscenti in hushed tones and rarely written down, it is a
challenge that Bruce is enthusiastic about to rediscover and document
our past. Whether researching in the Rochester City Archives or
muckraking through myriad rolls of WE Magazine on microfilm, Bruce is
committed to uncovering our local history. As he says, “Communities with
a known past count”.
Gerry Szymanski, Gay Alliance Librarian, adds that “Bruce is an
invaluable part of the Library & Archives team. He’s done an amazing
job of organizing our run of the Empty Closet and is entirely deserving
of this honor!”