Andrew Haigh UMASS-Amherst Music Department Librarian

I was an instrumental performance major as well as instrumental music education major from 1967 to 1972 at UMASS-Amherst.

Located at the Old Chapel in the Center of the UMASS campus was the beautiful Old Chapel which on the first floor housed the very modest in scope, Music Library.
The UMASS Music Librarian was Andrew “Andy’ D. Haigh.

Andy must have been at least 50 years old, medium build with graying hair, and cultivated a terrific beard and mustache. Andy always dressed casually, frequently wore well worn sport coats over a casual shirt with no tie.

Although the contents of the Music Library were limited. And, almost all of the collection all was very dated, recordings were worn and ‘scratchy’ to listen to on archaic playback equipment. Andy always did his best considering how underfunded the Music Library must have been in the 1967-1972 time frame.

Andy was an amateur jazz alto sax player who I never heard perform. However,

Andy did indeed love jazz and actually donated some of the very few jazz oriented records to the the Music Library contained.

Andy had a very friendly and accommodating personality and seemed to go out of his way to learn the first names of all of the music majors.

I had very frequent encounters with Andy Haigh during my entire 1967-1972 UMASS-Amherst enrollment period.

Andy Haigh always opened the Music Library on time and never seemed to be in a big hurry to close the Library at posted closing times. Andy also made sure the Music Library was kept well organized and clean.

Andy was a great asset to the UMASS-Amherst Music Department and it is shame the I can find nothing about him anywhere on the Internet.

However, it looks like Andy Haigh passed away by the year 2006.

According to Summer 2006
UMass Amherst Friends of the Library Newsletter –
Spring/Summer 2006 (no. 31)
The Library received a Memorial Gift in memory of Andrew D. Haigh. The nature of his Memorial Gift was not disclosed.