Chapter 10. Back Home Again

BY 8:30 A.M. I vas running up the front steps of our Western Bungalow on Almira avenue, home at last! I received a welcome like that of the prodigal son! Mother could not feed me enough. She kept saying how thin I had gotten. While I did weigh a little less than I had when I left home, I had only lost the excess weight I had put on in the sedentary life I had led before entering the service. Father vas more interested in my experiences! He wanted to know all about my army life in the states and in South Korea! That evening, I had to go over the entire story with my brothers who converged on the parental home after work to see me. For me, March 15, 1946 was one of the most memorable and joyous days that God has given me in all of my eighty plus years. He had brought me back safe and sound into the bosom of my family!

The next day, I rose bright and early because I was champing at the bit, eager to get back into the civilian saddle again. Father, knowing me as he did, had days before gone through my wardrobe and had readied two of my suits for me to wear. One was a form fitting gray plaid with vest and one pair of pants, the other was a dark double breasted, with two pairs of pants! They had been my favorite suits and, as I could see were still in excellent condition. I tried them on and they fit me perfectly. By 9:30 A.M. dressed in the gray plaid, I was on my way to the Library seeking my job!

On the 16th of March 1946 around about ten thirty o’clock, I found myself walking across the Public Square towards the Main Library Building on Superior Avenue at East Third Street, after having been away for almost three years! I entered that magnificent structure feeling that I was coming back home again. However, I wondered about the kind of reception I might have in my former work home, especially since I was coming back to ask for a position comparable to the one I had left when I answered Uncle Sam’s call. I really don’t know why I should have had any doubt because the United States Congress had passed a law that required employers to reinstate former employees in jobs equivalent to the ones held prior to military service.

Upon entering the Library, I headed straight for the fourth floor and to office of Clarence S. Metcalf, who was the Director of the Library System. When I got off the elevator on the fourth floor, I met for the first time L. Quincy Mumford, who had recently been appointed as Assistant Director. I recognized him from Library newsletter pictures that I had received when I was overseas. However, since he did not know me, he asked me if he could help me. I thanked him, introduced myself saying, “I know where I’m going, I’m here to see Mr. Metcalf about coming back to work. I have been away in the service.” He replied, “I have heard a lot about you! I am Assistant Director and I happen to be responsible for personnel. We have been expecting your arrival. Let us see Mr. Metcalf together!” That was to be the beginning of a long work association and a great friendship.

Quincy Mumford, was really and truly a gentleman and a scholar. He was a handsome man, of average height, in his early forties, and sartorially perfect! He was a southerner, born in Ayden, North Carolina. I can still hear his delightful, deep, mellifluous voice. He was a graduate of Duke University (Phi Beta Kappa), and the Columbia University School of Library Science. He was a judicious, wise and humane administrator, a man of integrity. I shall never forget the warm welcome I received from Mr. Metcalf. He embraced me, giving me a great big bear hug. There were tears of joy in his eyes, as he said, “Welcome back, Eddie! We have missed you. It is so good to see you looking so well!” Needless to say, by this time, I had tears in my eyes too.

Clarence Metcalf, was also a man of average height, in his late sixties. He could be described as grand fatherly in appearance, with a full, round, and friendly face that showcased a pair of spectacled eyes that always seemed to shine with a warmth and tenderness and always made me feel welcome in his presence.

Mr. Metcalf’s appointment had been a controversial one. He had been appointed, Acting Librarian in April 1941 by one of the most political Library Boards in the history of the Library. He had followed Charles E. Rush who had resigned broken in health and spirit on February 6, 1941 after only three years on the job and after fighting a fruitless battle for the right to administer the Library with a Board that had usurped that power! Clarence Metcalf was appointed Librarian in October 1941 for a three year term over the strong objections of the professional staff and the state and national library associations. They maintained that since he was not a professional librarian, he was not qualified to be the Librarian of the Cleveland Public Library. Mr. Metcalf had come to the Library in 1924 and had ably served as its Business Manager until his appointment as Librarian. He had never dreamed that he would some day be called upon to run the library. He was frank to admit his lack of training as a librarian. He did just that by saying to a group of young Library School graduates, “I can’t explain how in the world I ever became the Head of the Cleveland Public Library. I did not start out to make librarianship a career!” In fact his sensitivity to his professional detractors caused him to ask the Board about three years after his appointment to change his title from Librarian to Director. This, however, did not in any way appease the library professionals who upon the completion of his three year term, petitioned the Board without success not to renew his appointment.

It was not until October of 1945 that Mr. Metcalf was able to gain a measure of acceptance when he sagaciously got the board to approve his appointment of the highly qualified professional librarian L. Quincy Mumford from the New York Public Library as Assistant Director, with the understanding that Mr. Mumford would succeed him upon his own retirement three years from that date, which actually did not happen until five years after that date!

So here I was coming back from military service in the Spring of 1946, seeking to return to my job as a professional at what must have been an important turning point in the history of the Library! As I sat there in the director’s office facing the two men who held my future in their hands, I was remembering my father’s advice when I had left home that morning for this meeting. Father had counseled me as follows” “See what the Library officials have to offer you, Remember you have been away from your profession for three years and need to pick up where you left off. Keep an open mind about whatever assignment is presented. Be receptive. Listen carefully to what they have to say and make your choice of assignment thoughtfully and wisely!”

Father’s advice helped me to make a decision that morning that was to put me on the road to a fulfilling and successful career in librarianship. Mr. Metcalf and Mr. Mumford informed me that while I could rightfully expect by law to return to a job as a Branch Librarian in a branch library similar in size to the one I had relinquished when I answered my country’s call, such a position would not be open until the Fall of the year.

At this point, Miss Loraine later, the Supervisor of Branch Libraries joined the meeting. She also greeted me warmly and graciously welcomed me back “to the fold,” as she put it. You see, I had been one of her Branch Librarians before the war. She advised that the Fleet Branch Library located at 6511 Fleet Avenue, off Broadway Avenue, in Cleveland’s Polish community would be made available for me in September of the year, when the position was to become vacant, when the incumbent Branch Librarian would retire. Mr.  Metcalf asked whether I would be willing to accept some temporary assignments in the meantime. When I asked what he had in mind, he explained that there were two very important jobs that needed doing. First, The Intercultural Branch Library that had been established in early 1943 in place of the old St. Clair Branch at East 55th and St. Clair Avenue had been closed after only three years for lack of interest in the community. The idea had been to bring together in one place books, materials, art, artifacts, and objects of all kinds, representative of all the nationalities in the city of Cleveland in order to preserve and bring about a better understanding of the various cultures. The idea had been proposed by Theodore Andrica who was at that time the Nationalities Editor of the defunct Cleveland Press. Thinking it to be a good idea, especially since it was war time, Mr. Metcalf had embraced the idea as a way to bring about a greater unity between the various nationalities of the city. He had selected Mr. Frank Suhadolnik who had come to the Cleveland Public Library from John Carroll University to head the Intercultural Library. I was told that a great effort had been made to get the various nationality groups to lend their cultural items and mementos to the library. The response had been good and many items, valuable and otherwise were lent and or given to the library. The branch had been opened with great pomp and ceremony and flourished for a short while. I was told that the branch was finally closed when it became apparent that the nationality groups had lost interest.

I was told that it would be my job to inventory the materials in the library, find those that were not given as outright gifts to the library, those that had been lent, find the rightful owners and return their property to them, securing proper receipts, while seeing that the gift materials were properly recorded and absorbed in the various collections where such materials belonged.

They then advised that my second assignment would be as professional librarian in the Public Relations and Exhibits Office, as assistant to Albert Carl Young, who was at that time, the director of that office, that my job would be to work with the media as his public relations assistant, and to take over the responsibility for the library’s weekly radio programs. I would be completely responsible for writing all radio scripts and broadcasting them. I was to be the voice of the Cleveland Public Library on radio! Although the first assignment did not have too much appeal, the second one, doing public relations work and radio broadcasting, did, very much, so I accepted both tasks!

It was agreed that since I had just returned from active foreign military service that I should take a month of R & R and plan to start the first of my new assignments on April 15, 1946.