Dewhirst-Catalina Library History

The Dewhirst-Catalina Library, which opened in late January or early February of 1989, is named after Iris O. Dewhirst.

Iris O. Dewhirst (1927-1995) served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors from 1984 to 1988 representing District 1. She is best known for helping to pass dozens of development-related ordinances that sought to protect Pima County's natural resources. She was born in Wamego, Kansas, and moved to Tucson in the late 1950s. During her term as a Pima County Supervisor, she was best known for helping to pass dozens of development-related ordinances that sought to protect Pima County's natural resources. According to the Arizona Daily Star, she "pioneered Pima County's drive to preserve public access to Pima Canyon, and was instrumental in converting the Romero Ranch into the Catalina State Park. She received several awards, including Outstanding Citizen of Tucson (1974) for work on recycling, YWCA Women on the Move (1982) and a YWCA lifetime achievement award (1994).

The library was dedicated on July 26, 1996 in a ceremony at which Ed Moore, Pima County Supervisor and Liz Miller, Library Director, spoke.

Dewhirst-Catalina was the 15th library added to the system and relocated from a rented house to its current 2,500 square foot facility on July 6, 1994.

Fun fact: Between July 2000 and April 2001, 735,452 items were checked out of Nanini, Marana, and Catalina library branches. That was 16% of the entire circulation of the library system at that time.

Sources:

• Clerici, Kevin M. "A reference to library names." Arizona Daily Star, 31 December 1999, p 95.
• “Traffic is heavy at northwest libraries.” Arizona Daily Star, 21 July 2001, p 110.
• "Catalina to dedicate library, sheriff's office." Arizona Daily Star, 26 July 1994, p 12.