Maurice Derby Leach Jr., 91, of Lexington, Virginia, died on Saturday, March 21, 2015.

He was born on June 23, 1923, in Lexington, Kentucky, the eldest son of Maurice Derby and Sarah Woods Leach.

He is survived by his wife of 62 years, Virginia Baskett Leach; his daughter, Sarah Davis (Peter); grandchildren, Margaret Stuart Davis and Matthew Cowan Davis; and brother, Lewis Woods Leach.

Leach graduated from the University of Kentucky with a B.A. in history, and from the University of Chicago with a Bachelor of Library Science. He worked his way through college in a variety of jobs that included planting tobacco, working as a statistics runner at a racetrack, and most interesting to him, as assistant to a horse auctioneer, all of which provided experiences that helped him throughout his career and life.

Following his graduation, he was employed briefly as assistant librarian at the Texas College of Arts and Industries until joining the United States Department of State in 1947. After of year of service in the U.S. Army as an instructor of library science for the Special Services School at Fort Monmouth, N.J., he was sent to Cairo, Egypt as a librarian with the U.S. Information Service in 1950. From Cairo he moved to Beirut, Lebanon 1951-1953, returning to Cairo 1953-1957.

Leach married Virginia Stuart Baskett while on home leave in Lexington, Ky., on March 16, 1953. Virginia was teaching mathematics and working on her doctoral degree at the University of Kentucky at the time of their marriage, and joined her husband in the Middle East the following summer. They were evacuated from Egypt by the US Sixth Fleet during the Suez Crisis of 1956, and their daughter, Sarah Stuart, was born in Naples, Italy.

Leach and his family moved back to the U.S. in 1957, first to Washington, D.C., and then in 1959 to Lexington, Ky., where he became professor and chair of the Department of Library Science at the University of Kentucky, a position he held until 1966. While on a leave of absence from the university 1967-1968, Leach served as a Program Advisor to the Ford Foundation, first in Jordan at the University of Amman, and later in Lebanon at the American University of Beirut, helping to upgrade, develop, and build libraries for colleges and universities in the Middle East.

Leach became head librarian at Washington and Lee University in the summer of 1968, a position he held until 1985. During this time he guided the planning and construction of the university library (now the James Graham Leyburn Library) and organized the "Great Move" in which 1700 volunteers from the campus and community helped to move thousands of books from their former location in McCormick Hall to the new building. He advocated helping to make the library accessible to students, by keeping it open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, as well as to the community, commenting that, "one of the chief pleasures of being here is that this University does not see itself limited only to the few acres that it encompasses but it has traditionally given or made accessible its resources to other academic communities and to the community at large with a free and generous heart."

After retiring from Washington and Lee in 1988, Leach had the time to enjoy his interest in gardening, travel and genealogy. Over the years he was active in the English-Speaking Union, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, the Rockbridge Historical Society, the R.E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church and the Lunch Bunch.

Wherever he was to the end of his life, Leach enjoyed engaging people in conversation. He was grateful for the support he received from Rockbridge Hospice, Home Instead Senior Care and Maury River Home Care.

A memorial service will take place at 11 a.m. on Friday, March 27, 2015, at R. E. Lee Memorial Episcopal Church in Lexington.

Arrangements by Harrison Funeral Home & Crematory, Lexington, Va., 540-463-2912.