Chapter 17. I Am Offered Another Major Library Job As I Mourn the Passing of My Parents

The end of october and the forepart of November of 1955 became a period of great sorrow for the family. As recorded earlier in this tale, Mother passed away suddenly on the evening of October 31. Father, having watched her die on that Halloween night, seeming to have lost all interest, followed her in death ten days later. This left a big void in all our lives. It was especially so for me because father and I had been confidants. I had always been able to seek his advice and counsel, particularly on matters pertaining to my career.

I was especially honored and surprised when I found that father had named me to serve as executor for his last will and testament. When attorney James Paduano advised me that Father had named me executor, I asked, “Why me? Why not brother Nick? After all he is the oldest son!” Mr. Paduano replied, “your father insisted that it be you!” I carried out my duties in that sad chore, taking care of every detail as carefully and as efficiently as I could. I paid all the bills, looked to the disposition of their physical possessions, making sure that my brothers received those items they wanted, saw to the sale of the parental home, etc. Attorney Paduano took care of the legal paperwork and shepherded it all through probate court. Father’s estate was small. Nevertheless, the resulting funds, after paying the attorney and court fees and other related bills, the funds were distributed equally to the penny! Although it had been a lot of tedious work, I felt a sense of satisfaction because, I had done one last chore for father! Some time afterwards, Mr. Paduano paid me a compliment on my service as father’s executor at a social gathering with family and friends at brother Nick’s home. He said, “I wish to commend brother Ed for doing all the leg work, and, by the way, he refused to take payment for his work as executor from the estate’s assets, as the law provides, so as not to diminish the funds to be distributed among the brothers.”

Not too long after father’s death, I had one of the biggest surprises of my” life. Around the end of November of 1955, Director Lindquist called me to his office for a conference with Miss Wefel and himself. When I arrived at his office, Miss Wefel was already there.

After the usual preliminary greetings and pleasantries, Mr. Lindquist turned to me and said, “Eddie, during our search for a Business Manager, we have been interviewing outside candidates, while at the same time considering those members of the staff who might be qualified to serve in that capacity. Your name has come up often in our administrative meetings. Miss Wefel and other department heads have spoken to me about the long and varied experience you have had in the Library and have given you high marks for the way you have performed in every position you have held in your library career. I am prepared to offer you the job of Business Manager. How do you feel about it?”

I was thunderstruck! I sat there not believing what I was hearing. Here I was being offered one of the most important top level jobs in the Cleveland Public Library’ only fifteen months after having been promoted to Assistant Head of the Main Library!

This was a big decision for me to make. All previous career decisions that I had had to make paled into insignificance when compared to this one! Here I was, again being asked to leave the public service front that I had insisted on and gotten back to only a year and a few months ago. I found myself repeating what I had said to Mr. Mumford some three years before when he asked me to go behind the scenes to the Book Repair Division. It was deja vu for me as I said, “Mr. Lindquist, I am a public service librarian. I find myself being just that as Miss Wefel’s assistant in the Main Library. I have only’ been back in that phase of work a little over a year, and I am not sure that I would be any good at being Business Manager.”

Mr. Lindquist replied, “Miss Wefel and I think that you will be an excellent Business Manager because you have a great capacity for handling details and for following through on projects. In addition, your performance ratings have been superior in all the jobs you have held in this library from the day you started as a page on through your service as a reference assistant in the Sociology Division of the Main Library, to assistant branch librarian, to branch librarian in several branches, to Chief of the Book Repair Division, where I have found you showed excellent business acumen, and to your recent direction of the Main Library during the interim period when Miss Wefel directed the affairs of the entire Library system in the absence of a director.” He finished by asking me to consider taking the job as another step in administrative experience, and to take a few days to make up my mind on the matter. Miss Wefel also urged me to consider the offer. She cautioned me that it would be a great mistake to reject it out-of hand. After all that, what could I say? So I said that I would take a week to think the matter over and then give them my answer. I left the director’s office on that day in a real state of mental turmoil. I walked down the four flights of steps from that office to my office on the first floor of the Main Library with mixed emotions. I did not know whether I should be happy or unhappy at what had taken place. On one hand, I was happy that Mr. Lindquist had thought so much about my experience and qualifications to select me out of so many other staff members who were much older in years and who had longer tenure. I also kept telling myself, I should be considering this offer as the chance of a life time. I was being asked to work with the Director and the Assistant Director, to be a member of the triumvirate that would be administering the affairs of the second largest public library system in the United States! On the other hand, I was asking myself, did I really want to leave public service again. I knew that once I got into top administration, it would be difficult for me to ever go back into direct public service again. I was really on the horns of a dilemma. That was my state of mind as I drove home to consult with my Grace after work on that evening.

Grace was pleased and happy for me when I told her that I had been offered the new Business Manager’s job. She said that she was proud and especially pleased that my abilities and performance were being recognized, however, she wanted to be sure that I would be happy in the business end of the library administration. I shall never forget her final words to me on the subject that evening. She said, “Ed, I realize that this would be a great promotion for you. The job undoubtedly will bring a larger income and status in the Library world and in our community, however, I won’t love you any less if you do not rise any higher professionally than you are in your present position. In fact, I would love you just as much if you had remained a reference librarian like you were when I first met you. Money and position don’t mean that much to me!” That was my dear Grace.

That was that. Now it was up to me to make the final decision. This time, I did not have father to turn to for his point of view. I began asking myself, how would father advise me in this situation? This kind of thinking did not help me at all. I wrestled with the matter throughout the holiday with no success.

I returned to work on the day after the holiday no nearer to a decision than I had been before. Around about the middle of the morning, Miss Wefel came to me and asked if I had decided to accept the new job. I told her that I discussed it with Grace, however, I had not come to any conclusion as yet. She asked me if I had made any plans for lunch that day. I replied that I had not. Without any if and or buts, she said, “it is time that you and I had a good long lunch together!” She asked me where I would like to go for lunch? I suggested The Oak Room located in the lower concourse of the Union Terminal Building, which was one of my favorite restaurants in those days. That lunch in The Oak Room on that day after Thanksgiving of 1955 was a fateful lunch for me. After we had had a pleasant lunch, Miss Wefel cut to the chase by asking me why I was finding it so difficult in making a decision about accepting the job of Business Manager. I repeated the questions I had been asking myself. “First, was I ready to leave direct public service again so soon after having gotten back into it? Did I want to give it all up, and probably for good to involve myself in the business end of library work, something that I had not done before? After all would I be any good at it?”

Miss Wefel proceeded to answer each question in order. In answer to the first question, she said that I had shown that I was ready to leave direct public service when I took over the Book Repair Division and successfully put it on a businesslike basis in three years time, and it seemed like I had gotten a lot of satisfaction in doing it! Second, she thought that it was the right time in my career to leave public service for good because I was at the right age to break in to top level administration. She ended by saying that there was no question in her mind that I could handle the job of Business Manager because of the varied experience I had had in practically every aspect of the work in the Library.

After lunch, as Miss Wefel and I walked across the Public Square to the Library, she delivered the coup de grace, saying that I would be making the biggest mistake of my career if I should opt to turn the new job offer down. As we parted company, I thanked her for lunch and her advice and returned to my desk still not sure that I wanted to take the new job, even though I felt honored and proud of the fact that Miss Wefel, one of my most respected mentors felt that I was the best qualified for the job and was strongly urging me to take it. During the rest of that day, her warning that I would be making the biggest mistake of my career if I should reject the job of Business Manager unsettled me.

My thoughts turned to father and how he might have reacted to this latest turn of events in my career and what he might have said about it all. He had been gone not quite a month and here I was feeling the full impact of his absence. Oh! How I missed sitting at the kitchen table with him, getting his point of view on a multitude of matters!

That day, as I drove home from work, I decided to make a stop at father’s grave at Holy Cross Cemetery, located on Brookpark Road not too far from home. He rests there in a plot with mother under the watchful eye of the statue of Saint Anthony, who had been mother’s patron saint. It was early evening. It was cold and crisp. I recall standing close to the statue of Saint Anthony, using it as a shield against the shivering cold wind that was doing a good job biting my cheeks, ears, nose and penetrating my heavily winter clad body. I stayed long enough to say a prayer, to tell mother and father how much I missed them and, yes, especially his wisdom. I must frankly confess that the tears that I shed on that cold wintry day were not only caused by sorrow but also by the bone chilling wind that was whipping through the cemetery at the time. That evening, Grace and I, again, discussed the pros and cons of the job offer, that is, how nice it would be to have more salary, etc., as opposed to giving up professional library work for the Business Manager’s hat, and the headaches that might go with it, etc., etc. She kept repeating what she had told me so many times before, that she would support whatever decision I made. The problem was still unresolved when we went to bed that night!

The following morning, I received a call from the Director’s secretary who said that Mr. Lindquist wanted me to come to the office right away. Before leaving the Main Library office, I popped into Miss Wefel’s office momentarily to tell her that I had been summoned by the Director. She said seven words loudly and with great emphasis. They were: “Go! Take the job, he needs you!” Those seven words were still ringing in my ears, as Catherine Addis ushered me into the Director’s office.

Mr. Lindquist advised me that he had to make his recommendation for Business Manager in writing to the Personnel Committee of the Library board by December 1. Mr. Lindquist continued saying, “Eddie, I need to have your answer about the Business Manager’s position right away! I have to get my recommendations to the Personnel Committee of the Library Board this week in order to give the committee time to consider it before presenting it to the full board for a vote in the next Board Meeting scheduled for December 21 .”

I was on the spot! I had to tell him, Yes or No, then and there. Miss Wefel’s words. “Go! Take the job, he needs you,” were haunting me. The way they had been hurled at me hit the right chord. I found myself saying, “I will take the job and I will try to do my best for you in the job!” Mr. Lindquist shook my hand as he thanked me saying, “You won’t be sorry.” I left his office that day, saying to myself, “I hope that I won’t be sorry!”

I returned to Miss Wefel’s office to tell her that I had accepted the job. She warmly congratulated me, simply saying. “I am glad you took my advice!” I spent the rest of the day trying to keep my mind on my work. It was real difficult to do so. My alter ego kept saying over and over, “are you sure you did the right thing? Are you sure you did thd right thing?” As I drove home that night, I wondered what Grace would say” when I told her what I had done. I also wondered how father would have reacted to my decision and the manner in which I had made it!

Grace surprised me when I told her that I had accepted the new job. She said that I had not made a mistake by following Miss Wefel’s “order,” that she trusted Miss Wefel’s judgment. Grace’s interpretation of Miss Wefel’s, “Go! Take the job, he needs you,” as an order, caused me to laugh, and in doing so brought me to a lighter mental plane as Grace always managed to do for me whenever I became bogged down with a matter or problem. Without mincing any words, Grace had given me the reassurance that I needed that evening.