Librarian, husband get back to nature

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Updated: January 9, 2012 8:55AM

“This dragonfly came up to me. He was hovering right in front of my face, and I was really examining him, thinking, how does he see me? I became enlightened.”

— Ziggy Marley

Donna Resetar is a librarian at Valparaiso University and the wife of herpetologist Alan Resetar. They’ve been married 28 years and live in Valparaiso.

Donna, 59, graduated from Michigan State University and earned her graduate degree from the University of Chicago. She also is a genealogist who is into dragonflies.

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Maiden name?

“Roti Roti — two words, no hyphen. I had a compound surname before they were fashionable.”

I know an Egyptian-American Methodist minister named Zaki Zaki, but Zaki is his first and last name.

“Mine is an Italian name.”

You’re as interested in nature as your husband. Was that interest sparked early on like in Alan’s case?

“Yes, when I was very small, we were on a camping trip at the Dunes. My brother, who is 10 years older, had to do an insect collection for high school.

“There were six of us kids and a cousin — bedlam. I escaped the bedlam of the camp with my brother to hunt for insects; it was so much fun.

“My grandfather on my mother’s side bought some land in Kalamazoo, Mich., and built ponds; he was Dutch. He loved water and pumps. Of course, when you build a pond, what do you get? You get turtles and frogs. When I’d stay with my grandparents, I’d walk around the pond with my grandfather; he taught me to distinguish the different frog calls and recognize the various wildflowers.”

High school?

“Buchanan High School in Buchanan, Mich. It’s 15 miles northwest of South Bend.”

The population of Buchanan?

“When I was growing up, it was about 5,000 people; it’s smaller now. Buchanan lost its factory; now it’s a little bedroom community. My Italian grandparents owned a shoe store, of course.”

Italian-Dutch, that’s an interesting mix.

“On the Dutch side, they were Protestant Republicans. On the Italian side, they were Catholic and Democrats. Never in their entire lives had the Dutch side eaten spaghetti.”

That’s un-American!

“They were polar opposites. As my father put it, from an early age, I learned to respect diversity. Although Buchanan was small, it was integrated; it was a diverse factory town.

“Across the street from us lived a mixed-race couple — African-American and Chinese — who were Seventh-day Adventists.

“When you grow up in that kind of environment, you learn to respect people.”

With all your common interests, you and Alan are a match made in heaven.

“I’m a self-taught citizen scientist. Alan is the star of the show; I’m his research assistant.”

He’s Sherlock Holmes and you’re Dr. Watson. How did you two meet?

“I was the librarian at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, and Alan worked across the street at The Field Museum. He would come in on the South Shore, and I’d come in from Hyde Park on the Illinois Central. We’d see each other, and then, one day, he came to my library. And that’s how we met.”

Kids?

“All our children have four legs.”

What’s the cat’s name?

“Mini, because she’s so small. My last cat, Max, was an 18-pounder. So, I’ve gone from Max to Mini.”

Your career as a librarian?

“When I look back on my professional career, I can say that I’ve had three big highlights. The first was setting up the library at the Shedd Aquarium; I was their first librarian.

“The second was helping to bring up the first automated system at Valparaiso University.

“The third was helping build the Christopher Center for library information resources; I was on the planning team from the beginning for that particular building.”

How long have you worked at VU?

“Since ’87; I’m the associate dean.”

Dragonflies?

“Dragonflies are so much fun because there are more species of them than there are butterflies. They hang around in groups more, so you can see lots of them and they tend to stay in one place longer, too. So, they’re much easier to watch.

“Butterflies are beautiful, but dragonflies are just as beautiful.”

Your favorite dragonfly?

“The one I’m looking at, at the moment.”

What’s the really large one you see darting over ponds and wetlands?

“The green darner.”

You and Alan have been doing some research on the Hoosier frog and its discoverer.

“Yes, today it’s called the northern crawfish frog. The first specimen ever found was collected in Benton County in the 1870s by E.F. Shipman. We got to thinking, who was E.F. Shipman?

“I put my librarian and genealogy skills together to find out who E.F. Shipman was; his first name was Elias, and he was a native Hoosier who attended Northwestern University.”

Was Shipman raised in Benton County?

“He was kind of raised all over; he was an orphan who stayed with his older half-sister in Benton County. Shipman had brothers who farmed in Jasper, Benton and Fountain counties.

“Shipman’s father entered the Civil War when he was in his 50s and was killed. At one point, Northwestern was handing out scholarships to Civil War orphans.”

The plot thickens.

“We researched old Northwestern newspapers; Shipman was mentioned a lot. It turned out that he was a well-trained naturalist and botanist who collected more than 1,000 plants for the museum at Northwestern.

“He also did some botany work for a pharmaceutical company. Some of his plant specimens can be found at Harvard, The Field Museum. ... His plants are all over the country.

What became of Indiana’s E.F. Shipman?

“He went on to be a medical doctor, but wasn’t an M.D. for more than a year and he died. He was so young that he didn’t have a wife and children to remember him by.”

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Interesting couple, Alan and Donna Resetar. They even invited me to traipse around in the woods with them next spring in their search and research of salamanders.

I’m looking forward to that.