A Hundred Years, But Who’s Counting?

A Hundred Years, But Who’s Counting? In this special program celebrating our Centennial, Rowland Bennett , former Maplewood Library Director, will share facts and anecdotes about the history of Maplewood’s libraries. Saturday, December 7 2:00 pm at Main Library In Rochester, New York, after Mr. Bennett volunteered in his high school library a while, the librarian suggested he consider being a librarian. The idea had no appeal, yet his first paid job was at the city library as a shelver. In his college library he worked all four years in the periodicals department. He had little interest in the field professionally until after he returned from Peace Corps service in Malawi, Africa, where he taught English in a boys secondary school and took charge of the library there. After earning the Master of Library Science degree at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, he came to New Jersey to study at Princeton Theological Seminary. Soon his part-time job at Princeton Public Library grew to full-time and he left seminary studies. He was Asst. Director in Princeton when hired to be library director here, in Maplewood, starting January, 1974. His home since 1974 is within easy walking distance of Main Library. After nearly thirty years, he retired in 2003 and shortly after was elected to the SO-M Board of Education, serving two terms (to 2009). In addition, he is a longtime member of the Durand-Hedden House & Garden board, has served on the CHS Scholarship Fund board, and most recently was involved in the formation of the Maplewood Memorial Library Foundation, where he serves as President. He keeps his hand active in the field as a weekend reference librarian at the John Cotton Dana Library of Rutgers/Newark, work he very much enjoys.