The Ellen B. and Robert K. Wilmouth Endowed Library Collection was established in 1976 by Bob and Ellen Wilmouth of Barrington, Illinois. Bob is a Holy Cross College graduate, and he also obtained a master’s degree from Notre Dame in 1950. His successful career in the banking industry began with the First National Bank of Chicago. He later became president and director of Crocker National Bank in San Francisco and, since 1977, has held leadership positions in the futures industry. He is a Life Trustee at Notre Dame. Bob and Ellen have raised five children, all of whom attended Notre Dame.

The Wilmouth Endowment plays a vital role in building collections that support the educational and research needs of Notre Dame. Because it is unrestricted, it can be used to support large-scale acquisitions programs that are calculated to provide library support for a broad range of subjects in the most efficient manner possible. One such program is the Libraries’ North American Approval Plan, through which the University receives books of academic quality as soon as they are published. Two other items of note that have been acquired through general library endowment funds are a subscription to Jane’s Sentinel Country Risk Assessment, a product including more than 200 reports on U.N. recognized countries, territories, and commonwealths, and the Joint Publications Research Service Reports, 1957-1994, which is an archive of intelligence-related scientific, technical, and social science materials.