Julia Lynn Thompson Schneider departed this life surrounded by family on November 2, 2021. Julia was born to Lewis and Rosella (Sample) Thompson on February 17,1947. A lifelong resident of St. Joseph, Julia was a precocious child as an early reader and pianist. These two childhood pursuits portended Julia’s lifetime loves of libraries and music.
Julia became well known throughout her life as an excellent accompanist for other musicians, in addition to being a solo performer. She was a solo and ensemble accompanist from grade school through high school, Julia added extracurricular pipe organ studies while enrolled at Central High School, where she maintained excellent grades and played for CHS choirs, soloists, and musicals until graduation in 1965. Julia worked as a clerk and cataloguer at the St. Joseph Public Library after high school and during college. She also started as organist at Huffman Memorial United Methodist Church while working toward first an Associate of Arts degree from St. Joseph Junior College and then a Bachelor of Arts degree in English/Library Science at NWMSU. Julia earned a Master of Arts degree in Library Science at the University of Missouri – Columbia in 1971, whereupon she began her long career at Missouri Western State College (later Missouri Western State University) Library as its first Acquisitions Librarian. She worked her way through Technical Process Librarian, Coordinator of Technical Services, Acting Library Director, and finally Library Director, a position she held for 24 years out of her 44-year MWSU tenure.
Julia’s competency and professionalism as a librarian were well respected and she was widely recognized as a leader in that field during her lifetime. Julia was the MWSU Library’s liaison for OCLC, a national library and resource-sharing consortium. She was administrative director of many successful grant requests from the Missouri State Library for digitization of additional materials. She directed the retrospective conversion and processing of library collections at the National Military Heritage Museum in St. Joseph.
Julia steered the transition of the MWSU Library to the digital age. This included converting the card catalog search method to the INLEX database, a library internet digital agency. Julia served on the Board of Directors of INLEX, based in California. Her INLEX activity included product testing, national evaluation and compilation of a database of some 280,000 book titles, and her expertise was frequently sought by libraries launching their own search for an automated integrated library system. Julia was also president of MOBIUS, a common library collaborative partnership platform-sharing volumes and access to other materials across Missouri libraries and some out-of-state libraries. Julia’s charge to organize and arrange preservation of unique and rare resources that had been donated to MWSU became her firm mission to create and curate the Special Collections Room housing such extraordinary materials at the Library.
During her lifelong love of all things library, she received many awards and honors. Among them are MWSU Outstanding Administrator, MWSU Alumni Distinguished Alumni Award, MWSU Scanlon Service Award, YWCA Women of Excellence Lifetime Achievement Award. Throughout her library career and beyond, Julia was an accompanist for St. Joseph Community Chorus and many soloists at MWSU and CHS, as well as a frequent substitute organist. She was also very active in community offerings, participating in the St. Joseph Area Literary Cotillion, Wesley Foundation Board, Delta Kappa Gamma, Allied Arts Higher Education Fund Coordinator, The Runcie Club, United Way Fund Drive volunteer, Beta Phi Mu national library science honor society, and various arts and church activities.
In 1975, Julia married Tom Schneider, who survives of the home. Because their respective roles as pianist/organist and choir director figured so prominently in their lives, Julia and Tom literally and figuratively made beautiful music together during their 46 years of marriage. Along with Tom's children, Bradley (Tara) Schneider and Christine (Ed) Elsea, Julia and Tom added sons Jedd, Jeremy (Amber), and Jacob (Keera). Dr. Christine Schneider is also a part of the family. Grandchildren Edward Madison Elsea IV, Emily Mackenzie Elsea, Hera Ayn (Joey) Schneider, Ella Rose Schneider, Finn Christian Schneider, and Timothy Adam Schneider brought much joy to the family and Julia’s life. She is also survived by her brother, Gary (Connie) Thompson, of St. Joseph, two nephews, and three grand-nieces/nephews.
The family would like to thank all the wonderful Mosaic Hospice staff who cared for Julia. We would especially like to thank her daily caregivers, Tanika Fields and Stephanie King, whose loving attention to and concern for Julia were a blessing.
Farewell Services and Public Livestream 1:00 P.M. Wednesday, Ashland United Methodist Church. Interment Memorial Park Cemetery. The family will gather with friends 6:00 to 8:00 P.M. Tuesday, Meierhoffer Funeral Home & Crematory. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Special Collections of the MWSU Library or to the Ashland Avenue United Methodist Church music program.
