When Eduardo F. Lozano agreed to come to the University of Pittsburgh from his native Argentina in 1967, he planned to stay just one year to help the fledgling library at the new Pitt Center for Latin American Studies.
Instead, he never left, retiring only this year as his health declined. Mr. Lozano died Friday at his Point Breeze home. He was 81.
During his tenure, he built what was named the Eduardo Lozano Latin American Library Collection in 1997 from perhaps hundreds of volumes to the current 465,000, making it one of the premier collections in the world. Scholars come from around the world to use the collection.
Mr. Lozano's method of collecting books was unorthodox among bibliographers. Each summer, he spent about two months in Latin America hand selecting books, providing better choices and lower cost than acquisitions through international booksellers.
Mitchell Seligson, a former professor of political science at Pitt and now Centennial professor at Vanderbilt University, met up with Mr. Lozano on book-buying trips in Chile and Argentina.
Mr. Lozano would be up almost before dawn and carry shipping paper, twine and tape on his visits to publishers and others, pay local currency and then wrap the book and take it to the post office to mail to Pittsburgh.
"Just about everybody knew him. He was a powerhouse of energy," said Dr. Seligson.
He said Mr. Lozano could buy a book that would cost $50 from an international bookseller for $2 and ship it at a library rate for 50 cents.
He said Mr. Lozano had a remarkable memory for books already in the collection. Pitt also acquired some complete collections in addition to the hand-selected works.
Kathleen M. DeWalt, current director of Pitt's Center for Latin American Studies, said, "What made him so good was his concept of a collection that had both breadth and depth and that would meet the needs of scholars across a wide array of disciplines. It is a very balanced collection."
He helped students find the works they needed for their dissertations and helped faculty get the materials they needed for study.
Dr. Seligson said that Mr. Lozano and his wife, Lillian Seddon Lozano, were like surrogate parents to students who came to Pitt from Latin American countries.
Cole Blasier, a retired Pitt research professor who was the first director of the center, said he knew a strong library would be vital to the success of the center, which opened in 1964, and asked Pitt librarians for names of those with Latin American credentials. Mr. Lozano worked for the Pitt library system.
Mr. Lozano at the time was directing two libraries in Argentina, according to the University Times.
Dr. Blasier interviewed him on the phone, in part to make sure his English was good. Mr. Lozano spoke English, Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italian, according to the university.
Mr. Lozano also was an accomplished painter, and a book on his life and work was recently published in Argentina. Some of his work hangs in the Latin American reading room at Pitt.
"He was an incredibly cultivated person who came out of that very rich intellectual and academic life in Argentina in the 1940s and 1950s," said Reid Andrews, professor of history at Pitt. "He had incredibly broad-ranging interests in literature, film, history, art, music, every cultivated activity you can imagine."
Mr. Lozano was known as a modest person who didn't seek to have attention called to himself.
Mr. Lozano is survived by his wife.
A memorial service will be held at a later date.
Arrangements are by McCabe Brothers Funeral Home.
Correction/Clarification: (Published Aug. 28, 2006) Eduardo F. Lozano was the Latin America bibliographer at the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library. A headline for this obituary as originally published on Aug. 27, 2006 incorrectly reported his position at the university.
First Published: August 27, 2006, 4:00 a.m.
