Just strike up a conversation with Kathy Demsky and it will soon become apparent how much she loves her job, and the students she interacts with in her position as director of the Architecture Resource Center at Andrews University (AU).

“Students are everything. They come first,” Demsky explains. “They’re my second family.”

Demsky moved to AU with her husband, Conrad, from Gentry, Arkansas, in the mid 1980s. Her library talents were soon discovered, and she was recruited to begin working in the architecture library in July 1987. Before she even finished her undergraduate degree, Demsky became director of the Architecture Resource Center in 1989.

Demsky went on to receive a double degree in organizational management and management and human resources at Bethel College in 1992 and a masters in library science degree from Indiana University South Bend in 1994.

Besides being the only Seventh-day Adventist architecture librarian in the world, Demsky also holds a permanent position on the board of directors of Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) as publications coordinator. The AU Architecture Resource Center’s EDRA collection is the most comprehensive compilation in the world.

Demsky is also an assistant professor. She has helped organize the architecture department’s study abroad program and has taught a class on Waldensian faith and history.

Demsky accounts her success to God’s blessings, and a quote from Psalm 18 lines the top of her office wall in bold black letters, reminding her that “By my God I can leap a wall.”

Beverly Stout, University Relations news writer