Q.) Where do you work (or what do you do when you’re not serving on the board?

A.) After a career as a librarian (for more than 22 years at the State Library of Kansas), I’m retired. It’s been easy to stay busy with work around home, cooking, reading – I’m an active library user, volunteering in several organizations, birding, exercising, kayaking, and when travel allows, hiking and adventuring in some of our national parks.

Q.) After spending a career as a librarian, why volunteer in an industry that used to pay you?

A.) The library is one of many useful, interesting places to volunteer. I’m fortunate to have good health and time to give.

Q.) What is your favorite area of the library and why? (or what area are you currently most excited about?)

A.) I love it all; this isn’t hyperbole.

Q.) Name a few ways you see the library making a difference in the Topeka and Shawnee County community.

A.) Thousands of people use the library for education, entertainment, personal and vocational skills development and other personal enrichments. The people make this library possible; the library responds with resources that can enrich the life of each person in the community. It’s a privilege to help as a member of the board.

Q.) What will the library do in 2012 to make a difference for library customers and the community?

A.) The library, through the excellent staff working together, will keep on being the outstanding public service that you are widely known to be; this year and onward we’ll be working together to maintain and improve on this quality.

Q.) How long have you been a library cardholder?

A.) Since the age of 6 or 7. The first library for me was the old Carnegie in Salina, Kan. My first librarian was Jerome Cushman, an outstanding man in my memory.