Pauline Anna Blazina Atherton Cochrane died July 29, 2024 at The Arthur Home, Arthur, Illinois. Born in Argo, Illinois she graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Illinois College (Jacksonville) in 1951.

She was a pioneer in subject access to information organization with a distinguished career as a professor of Library and Information Science [LIS]. Her academic appointments included Chicago Teachers College, Syracuse University, and the University of Illinois. Her academic papers are housed at Syracuse University. The writings of S.R. Ranganathan [Five Laws of Library Science] and a conference in India deeply influenced both her publications and her teaching. 

While married to anthropologist Glynn Cochrane she temporarily left academia but consulted for the Library of Congress and taught at American University for 2 years while living in Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka. Returning to the United States in 1987, Cochrane accepted a position as Visiting Research Professor at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign where she conducted research in classification and computer-based library catalogs. Until her retirement in 2008, one of her greatest joys was teaching and encouraging early career researchers. For more than 50 years, Pauline Cochrane also significantly influenced LIS leaders in government, libraries, publishing, and computer science through her many consultancies, visiting professorships, funded research, and publications.

Bringing Cochrane equal joy were music and observing the natural world. Cochrane supported both the Smithsonian Chamber Music Society and the Oberlin Credo program to help develop younger musicians. Her informal journals and haiku poetry most often reflected her observations of the birds and the flowers she could see from her windows. And she loved her friends, particularly if they were willing to play a few hands of cards.

Pauline Cochrane is survived by her daughter Linda-Rose Myers, her granddaughter Zara Rose Browne and her grandson George Chamoun. She was predeceased by her parents, John V. Blazina and Anna Jacovich, and her brother, Martin E. Blazina.