Wilson Center Honors Librarian Emeritus Zdeněk (Zed) David For His 90th Birthday

The Wilson Center community honors Librarian Emeritus Zdeněk (Zed) David for his 90th birthday. A native of the Czech Republic, Zed received his doctorate at Harvard University and then was a Slavic bibliographer and history lecturer in Russian and East European history at Princeton University. In 1974, he joined the Wilson Center staff as Librarian, a position he held until 2002, during which he established our Library as a first-class research resource for our staff and scholars.

As Librarian Emeritus, Zed has remained an active and prolific scholar, whose books include Realism, Tolerance, Liberalism in the Czech National Awakening. Zed’s work on Czech national identity is particularly appropriate for the Center in light of Woodrow Wilson’s critical role in the founding of Czechoslovakia after World War I. Among Zed’s awards is the František Palacký Honorary Medal for Merit in Historical Sciences from the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.

Zed continues to conduct research in the Center’s Library, where his current book project is on the life of Thomas Masaryk, one of the founders of the modern Czech Republic.

We salute Zed’s accomplishments and long service to the Wilson Center and send him our best wishes on this landmark birthday.