LIS receives $1.2 million endowment from alumna Jesse Reinburg for new data science professorship fund

The College of Information Department of Science has established an endowed professorship fund called The Reinburg Professorship in Data Sciences.

This professorship fund, in the amount of 1.2 million dollars is the gift of Jesse Reinburg, a former IS graduate, who passed away in September 2015. Jesse Reinburg graduated from UNT in 1941 with a bachelor’s of science degree in library science. Working as a cryptographer during World War II for the U.S. Intelligence Agency, her group was responsible for intercepting and decoding the message about Japan’s plan to bomb Pearl Harbor. She also worked for the U.S. State Department where she was responsible for founding and managing libraries in countries all over the world, including Greece and Argentina. She later returned to Texas to work at the Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth.

A close friend, Sharon Culborn, describes Jesse as “the most wonderful woman you could imagine. She was very proud of the fact that she went to UNT and that she was one of the first women to graduate in library sciences."