Paul M. Farber, retired head of the Rosengarten Reserve at Penn’s Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, has died at 78

Paul M. Farber, 78, of Philadelphia, former head of the Rosengarten Reserve at the University of Pennsylvania’s Van Pelt-Dietrich Library, lifelong art and classical music aficionado, and West Mount Airy neighborhood stalwart, died Thursday, Aug. 29, of pancreatic cancer and renal failure at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Mr. Farber was an “intellectual explorer,” his family said, and he took art classes as a boy, played Mozart and Beethoven on the piano as a teenager, and amassed thousands of records, CDs, films, and musical scores over decades of serious collecting.

He graduated early from high school, and earned a bachelor’s degree in philosophy at Penn. He was hired at the library in 1974, rose to head of the reserve in the 1990s, and spent nearly four decades surrounded by books, manuscripts, and other materials about all things under the sun.

“He appreciated the humanities and arts, and libraries are hotbeds of that,” said his son, Noah. “He had the heart of a collector, and all those books and things were a tangible aspect of that wealth of knowledge.”

Mr. Farber was generally quiet, his family said, but had a “passion for understanding more deeply about human nature and connecting deeply with others.” He routinely offered his own vast library of books and records to friends and neighbors, and invited other film buffs to his home for showings.

He guided thousands of Penn students to library materials they needed for courses, supervised other library staff, and coordinated the reserve’s lending schedules. He also served on the executive board of the local union and was shop steward in the 1990s. He retired in 2012.

Mr. Farber embraced his imagination — what he called “his interior life” — as well as music and art, and immersed himself in the Philadelphia Orchestra, Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and Philadelphia Museum of Art. He visited museums and libraries wherever he went, attended concerts in Philadelphia and New York, and saw piano superstars Wolfgang Sawallisch, Sviatoslav Richter, and Maurizio Pollini perform in person.

He was active with the Philomathean Society at Penn, Weavers Way Co-op, Sierra Club, and West Mount Airy town watch. His family said in a tribute: “He believed in simple joys and the beauty of loving and lasting relationships.“

Paul Morris Farber was born May 3, 1946, in Philadelphia. He studied classical piano with Sarah Freed as a teenager and painted in art classes at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. He graduated from what is now Jack M. Barrack Hebrew Academy in 1963 and from Penn in 1967.

He became smitten with Bryn Mawr College student Michaela Metcalf when he was at Penn, and they married in 1967. They lived in West Philadelphia and West Mount Airy, and had son Noah and daughter Carly. His marriage was “steady, quiet, loving, and devoted,” his family said. His wife died in 2018.

Handy and energetic, Mr. Farber restored his own three-story twin house and helped neighbors with their home repairs. He also made furniture and crafted small paper reproductions of famous buildings from kits.

He took long walks in the neighborhood and invited friends over for dinner often. He did crossword puzzles, liked romantic comedies, and served as a judge at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

He traveled to the West Coast and Europe, and cared for his sister and wife when they became ill. He also had memorable times with his partner, Rebecca Lipner.

Friends called him “a gentle, thoughtful, perceptive person” and noted his “rich, remarkable life” and “miraculous ability to accept people on their own terms.” His family said they appreciated his “enthusiasm and excitement for life and family, and big hugs.” They said he was loyal and “made each of us feel seen, loved, and welcomed.”

He did his best, his daughter said, to live up to his values. She said: “He cared a lot about the people he cared about.”

His son said: “He was a people person who loved helping people.”

In addition to his children, Mr. Farber is survived by a granddaughter and other relatives. A sister died earlier.

Services were held Sept. 11.

Donations in his name may be made to the American Kidney Fund, 11921 Rockville Pike, Suite 300, Rockville, Md. 20852; Sierra Club, 2101 Webster St., Suite 1300, Oakland, Calif. 94612; and Settlement Music School, Box 63966, Philadelphia, Pa. 19147.