The Law Center’s library has grown to become one of the largest law libraries in the nation, but it’s been missing its chief architect for the past three weeks.

Law Center Professor and Law Librarian Robert Oakley died suddenly on Sept. 29 at the age of 61 from cardiac arrest, after having been hospitalized for complications following a knee surgery in August.

Oakley had worked as both a professor and a law librarian at the Georgetown University Law Center since 1982. According to a statement from the Law Center, he helped the law library grow from a collection that occupied two floors of one academic building to a collection that completely fills two library buildings today. The collection now exceeds one million volumes and is the fourth largest law library in the country.

“His knowledge acumen and careful planning were crucial to the construction of one of the finest library buildings in the nation,” said Richard Chused, a Georgetown law professor.

Oakley received his bachelor’s degree and his law degree from Cornell University and his Master’s in Library Science from Syracuse University. Before he came to GULC, he worked as associate law librarian at Cornell Law School, and then as director of the law library and associate professor of law at Boston University.

Oakley specialized in copyright law and often wrote and lectured on the subject. He was the president of the American Association of Law Libraries from 2000 to 2001 and was serving as the AALL Washington affairs representative at the time of his death. However, Oakley’s former colleagues said they remember him most not for the offices he held but for the passion and energy he had for his work, his caring personality, his ability to connect with all the members of the library staff and his love of Balkan folk dancing.

Oakley was known by many of his colleagues as a well-respected mentor and figure throughout the university.

“Mentoring and mentorship are buzzwords these days,” said Jett McCann, director of the Dahlgren Memorial Library at the edical Center. “Obviously he lived it and had an impact in many lives.”

Colleagues said that Oakley was a hands-on director and was constantly looking for ways to bring the resources of the library to the students.

“He will always be remembered for his gentle spirit,” said Marina Veljanovska, collections services administrative assistant at GULL.

Veljanovska, who used to work with Oakley, said that Oakley was known to encourage members of the library staff to dance while at work.

“I will never forget the fun we had when we folk danced together,” Veljanovska said.

Laura Bedard, special collections librarian at the Law Center, echoed Veljanovska’s jovial spirit.

“Bob was still sensitive to the needs of his staff; he still found time to listen and bring people together to work on common goals,” said Laura Bedard, the special collections librarian at the law center.

In addition to lightening the mood through dance, Oakley spearheaded a campaign to make the rare-book collection more accessible by allowing access to the books as well as transferring them to e-books and PDF files.

“I feel such a loss, such a big hole. The world and Georgetown has lost a good man, a visionary in the world of legal information, who could look backwards in time to the historical materials to be preserved and used, and forward in time to the next generation of technology to be harnessed for learning and scholarship,” Bedard said. “At least we had him for 25 years.”

Oakley is survived by his wife, two children from his first marriage, his mother, his stepfather, two half brothers and two stepbrothers.