Obituary: John McNamee, Past President of EIBF

John McNamee, past president of the European and International Booksellers Federation (EIBF), died suddenly on January 4, 2015.

McNamee, who worked for Ireland’s Eason Portlaoise, served as president of the European Booksellers Federation from 2005 to April 2014, and “in that time he won the admiration and respect of everyone with whom he worked,” said EIBF co-presidents Kyra Dreher, Fabian Paagman, and Jean-Luc Treutenaere. “He was an indefatigable champion of bookselling and the promotion of reading.”

American Booksellers Association CEO Oren Teicher, vice president of international affairs for EIBF, said, “John McNamee played an indispensable role in forging alliances of booksellers from all over the world and was instrumental in dramatically increasing the influence and reach of the European and International Booksellers Federation. He was a good friend to many booksellers here in the U.S., and we’ll miss his camaraderie and friendship.”

Tim Godfray, chief executive of the Booksellers Association of Great Britain and Ireland (BA), said he was devastated by the news of McNamee’s death. “John made a massive contribution to the work of bookselling,” Godfray said. “He was president of the European Booksellers Federation for over eight years, he had been chair of the BA’s Irish Branch and served on its executive committee for very many years, supporting passionately trade initiatives like World Book Day, Books Are My Bag, and Book Tokens. And John had also been on the BA Council, representing tirelessly the Irish book trade. Recently, he fought vigorously plans by the Irish government to attempt to centralize the purchasing of library books.”

John McNamee is survived by his wife, Betty; his daughter, Mary; and his son, Eoin, and his family.