 "Photo: Julie Cassetina")
Robert Morin is often seen pacing outside the Dimond library with one hand on his hip, puffing his Briar pipe in contemplative silence.
He’s been working at UNH as a cataloguer since 1965, almost as long as the 50 years he’s been a smoker.
Gabe Katzenstein, a senior linguistics major, has shared the same smoking spot with Morin many times, but has never heard him speak.
“He’s a sort of infamous, mysterious guy who hangs around,” Katzenstein said. “He sort of has the stigma of an old wise man who knows a lot about people.”
But Morin is more than just an enigma.
He was born in Nashua and attended UNH on-and-off from 1955 to 1963. After completing library school at Simmons College in Boston, he took root in Dover where he has lived by himself for over 40 years.
Morin said he enjoys being a bachelor.
“I’m too fiercely independent and I’m not prepared to make concessions,” he said about considering marriage.
Although he describes himself as a loner, Morin has a sharp sense of humor that he likes to share with other people.
Christine Meyer, a junior hospitality major who works at Zekes Café, said that Morin always makes jokes and brings a smile to her face, adding that he often buys Pop Tarts at the café.
“He always thinks of a poem or sings me a song off the top of his head,” Meyer said.
Morin has always been fascinated with words. He studied English at UNH because he “loves to read.”
He still remembers the first two books his mother ever read him, “Alice in Wonderland” and “Mother Goose”.
Since 1997, Morin has been reading books specifically about the 1930’s, the decade during which he was born.
He “ran out of movies” after watching what he estimates was 21,000 films in 17 years.
“I get involved very heavily,” Morin said of his zeal for books and movies.
According to Morin, his passion for academics was ignited during his time at UNH and became his main priority.
He pledged a fraternity, but decided it wasn’t for him after discovering his distaste for alcohol.
Morin said things have changed a lot on the UNH campus since he was an undergraduate.
For starters, Morin recalled that “back in ancient days,” the library staff could smoke at their desks and students were allowed to smoke in designated reading rooms instead of outside.
Many students attended UNH on the GI bill and took their studies very seriously, Morin said.
He also said the atomic bomb and communism were the most feared things on campus.
Morin described women who wore red lipstick and carried their books in their arms instead of in bags.
Men, Morin said, favored sweaters and chinos and didn’t wear sneakers unless they were playing sports.
“Jeans were strictly for agricultural majors,” Morin said.
Dorm life has changed drastically since the 1950’s. Morin recalled men and women living in separate dorms and said that all women were “locked up” after a 10 p.m. curfew.
According to Morin, “panty raids” were a popular stunt all over the country.
During these raids, Morin described men attacking the women’s dorms, stealing their panties and slips.
Despite engaging in games involving women’s underwear, Morin said that while he was a student there were fewer distractions from studying because there were no video games or computers.
“When you were bored you read a book or listened to a record,” Morin said.
Morin never had to learn about technology and computers when he went to library school.
Catching up with new equipment hasn’t been pleasant for him.
“I get lost with machines,” he said. “I don’t like gadgets.”
That means that Morin doesn’t own an iPhone, a personal computer, a camera, a toaster, a blender or an electric razor.
Even so, Morin can send e-mails and knows his way around an online library catalogue.
“You see this machine here?” he said, pointing to his computer. “You use the online catalogue and I feed stuff into it for you.”
Over the years Morin has seen some interesting things pop up in the library catalogue, including hand-puppets, rock collections, stuffed animals, coloring books, reproductions of fine art and “anything you’re liable to find in a children’s or prison library.”
He recently finished cataloguing the CD “A Night at Birdland, vol. 1,” with the Art Blakey Quintet.
Debbie Watson, a reference librarian who has known Morin for 45 years, said Morin knows something about just about anything.
“He’s extremely well read and an excellent cataloguer,” Watson said. “He’s also very good with people.”
Morin said he spends a lot of time at his house and gets around with the help of a former student.
Pointing to his khaki pants, navy blue suit jacket and matching tie, Morin said, “Bethany helped me pick this out. She took me to Macys. Without her I’m at a disadvantage because I don’t know where things are.”
Although leaving home has gotten harder with age, Morin doesn’t foresee retiring anytime soon.
“There’s nothing I dislike about this job,” Morin said. “If I did I would have retired a long time ago.”
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