Chapter 27. Recovery, New Life and a Second Career

Make it, I did! With Grace’s help, the special diet meals she prepared for me, and her willingness to accompany me on my aerobic walks did the trick. I lost forty-one pounds! I had shed all the weight I had gained as a result of the sedentary life I had led for years. I was back to what I had weighed when I returned from military service after World War II-135 pounds. Grace as well as I were in better physical shape than we had been in years.

Some time around the middle of March, I was saddened to hear that a decision in the Cleveland Public Library’s appeal to the Board of Tax Appeals with respect to its 1970 Budget allocation had been received. The Board of Tax Appeals had seen fit to reduce the Library’s original budget allocation of $7,681,927 which had been awarded by the Cuyahoga County Budget Commission in response to my last budget request to $ 7,468,340, a reduction of $213,587! This was a substantial reduction that was going to have a serious impact on the Library’s operations in 1970. The Cuyahoga County Library’s allocation was increased from its original allocation of $3,817,906 to $4,450,495, an increase of $632,589. My worst fears had come to pass.

The record shows that when Mr. Merritt as President of the Board reported the bad news to the Board, he said that the actual need of the Library for 1970 was $ 9,511,4 70, that it was the recommendation of the attorneys, acting as counsel for the Board of Trustees that the matter be taken to the Supreme Court of Ohio. The record also shows that before the end of March, the Cleveland Public Library Board of Trustees decided to carry its appeal to the Supreme Court of Ohio. Although I was no longer a part of the Cleveland Public Library family, the news of the Library’s failed appeal before the Board of Tax Appeals, and understanding the implications of what faced the Library and its staff in the days ahead, I nevertheless felt worried and sad on their behalf.

By early April 1 of 1970, having religiously followed my doctors’ orders and with my family’s help, I had recovered from my illness. Sometime during the morning of that day, I heard a voice from the past. When the telephone rang that morning, Grace called to me saying, “O.tfincy is on the phone for you!” I picked up the phone and surprise of surprises, it was L. Quincy Mumford, the Librarian of Congress, my former boss at the Cleveland Public Library. I had not seen or talked to Quincy since he left Cleveland in 1954 to become the Librarian of Congress. I was puzzled as to why he would be calling me after all these years.

I heard, Quincy say in his unforgettable North Carolian accent, “Eddie, are you ready to come back to work for me? I have been reading about your retirement from the Cleveland Public Library in our professional library publications, that you have been recuperating from a heart attack. Are you at the point now where you might be ready come to join me here on Capitol Hill?” I did not know what to say for a moment or two. I was completely taken by surprise. I finally was able to reply saying that I was glad to hear from him, that I was so surprised and pleased that he still wanted me to join him after so many years since we had last talked about such a possibility. I told him that while I felt that I was fully recovered that the suddenness of his offer required some thought on my part and of course discussion with my doctors, Grace and sons. He replied saying, “Eddie, let me know in a couple of day’s!” I agreed and thanked him. We said our good byes, and that was it!

Grace who had been listening to my end of the conversation, was as amazed as I was at this turn of events. She immediately said, “If you feel up to it, it may be the right thing for us to do at this time. After all, Edward will be going to Dental School, and Paul will be going away to college. This may be the right time to make such a move.”

Since Dr. John Sanitato the internist who was monitoring me at the time, had given me a clean bill of health, on the morning of the 4th of April 1970, I decided to accept Mr. Mumford’s offer and telephoned him. Again I was amazed on how quickly he responded to my acceptance. He asked me if it would be possible for me to come to Washington sometime within the next ten days, that he would like me to meet with some of his department heads to talk about possible areas in the Library of Congress where my background and library experience would be of most help. I was
flabbergasted on how quickly things were developing. He must have sensed my feeling of surprise because he quickly said, “If that is too short notice, Eddie, tell me.” I found myself saying, “OH, NO!” He then said, “That’s fine, I’ll have the Travel Office here arrange for a government travel voucher for transportation on one of the airlines to get you here for a day soon. I’ll get it to you as soon as possible. Is that alright?” Of course, I said, “O.K.” In what seemed to be the twinkling of an eye, I was committed to going to Washington for an interview with The Librarian of Congress and his top officers to see where I might best fit in the table of organization of the nations great library. If all went well, it meant that, I would be uprooting my family from extended family and friends, selling our home and moving lock stock and barrel to a new community. When I expressed those feelings to Grace, she and I began to have second thoughts about the idea of going, however, we both laughed when I said, ’kfter all I am just going for an interview, I might not be hired!”

Mr. Mumford was true to his word. On April 14, he sent me a travel voucher covering all travel expenses to and from Washington, D.C. along with his letter inviting me to come on April 20, to spend the day with him and various department heads of the Library of Congress. I was now getting excited about the prospects and began to imagine what it was going to be like working at the Library of Congress, seeing Mr. Mumford again after sixteen years and meeting top level representatives of his management team. I spent the next six days getting myself mentally and psychologically ready for my day on Capitol Hill.

On April 20, as arranged by the government travel voucher, I flew to the nation’s capital on the United Airlines 8:15 A.M. Flight, arriving there at 9:15 A.M. and luckily shortly after the end of a heavy wind and rain storm. The sun was just beginning to peak through the remaining clouds as the plane landed. Since my travel voucher also provided for cab fare, I took a cab from Washington National Airport to the Library of Congress.

The cab brought me on to Capitol Hill just as its monuments and imposing Capitol and other government buildings, freshly washed by the rain, now gleamed and glistened in the morning sun, like architectural jewels. Once again I felt that thrill and pride that I had felt during World War II, when as a young soldier I first saw my country’s Capitol and its neighboring buildings on a day’s delay enroute to a new assignment at Drew Field, a LI.5. Army Air Corps Base, located near Tampa Florida.

The cabby dropped me off at the Main entrance of what is now known as the Thomas Jefferson Building of the Library of Congress. There immediately in front of me at sidewalk level was that unforgettable fountain known as the Court of Neptune. I took a moment to look at that ageless introductory architectural feature, remembering the day that my Grace and I had stood on that very spot admiring the beauty of the fountain in November of 1947, on our visit to the library as a couple during our honeymoon in the capital city.

I decided to walk up the great stone stairway to the first floor entrance instead of entering the building under the less impressive arches at the ground level because I wanted to see the ethnological heads over the first story pavilion windows and the sculptured busts at the portico above the main entrance, because they had impressed me so much each time I had seen them in the years past. It is worth the extra energy it takes to climb that great stairway to that main entrance, especially so, when one is greeted by those two pieces of architectural de resistance, the bronze doors. What a breath-taking entrance!

Before I reached the top of that stairway on that 20th day of April of 1970, I found a fairly large partially
broken glass light globe on a step near the top. It apparently had been blown off of a nearby ornamental metal post during the rain and windstorm that had preceded my arrival. It miraculously had not shattered on impact in its fall to the stone step. Except for a small chip it appeared to be intact. Without hesitation I picked up the globe and carried it into the building. It was an automatic action on my part, probably due to the awareness of things having to do with the care and maintenance of library buildings that had become second nature when I was the Business Manager of the Cleveland Public Library.

Upon entering the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, I found a Library police officer at a desk immediately inside the doorway. I placed the globe on his desk and advised him that he might want to turn it over to the Library’s Superintendent of Buildings and arrange for the installation of a new globe. As an afterthought, I introduced myself and asked for directions to Mr. Mumford’s office, I have never forgotten the look on that man’s face in the years since. In the later years of my association with him and other Library police officers the story of the strange man who came into the Library of Congress on a day following a heavy wind and rain storm, and nonchalantly deposited a broken outdoor glass light globe on the officer’s desk with instructions about what to do about it, became a part of Library of Congress Police Folklore. Over the years we had many a laugh as the story was told and retold, getting more hilarious each time it was told because it took the office of the Architect of the Capitol almost a year to replace the broken globe!

As I left the police officer’s desk, I took a minute or two to drink in the breathtaking beauty of the awesome art and architecture of the Great Hall before proceeding to Mr. Mumford’s office which was just off the Great Hall. In my estimation there is no other place in the nation’s capital or any where in this country that can match it. I arrived in The Librarian’s outer office at 10:00 A.M. There I met for the first time Gladys Field a charming and gracious Assistant to the Librarian, who ushered me into Mr. Mumford’s office.

Mr. Mumford greeted me warmly, placing his arm around me, he guided me to a chair along side his desk. He asked about my flight, had we missed the storm on the way, etc. He asked about my wife and sons and their situations in school etc. I, in turn asked about his wife and daughter. After we had completed our talk of personal matters, Mr. Mumford told me that he had arranged appointments with Mr. John Lorenz, the Deputy Librarian of Congress, Mr. William Welsh, the Director of the Processing Department, Mr. Fraser Poole, Director of the Preservation Office and who had been placed in charge of planning of the newest library building which was to be built on a large plot of land immediately across the street from the Main Building on Independence Avenue. The land had been cleared and was temporarily being used for Library parking.

My last appointment was to be with Mr. Paul Berry, who was then the Director of the Reference Department. Mr. Mumford said that he had arranged for each of the men to come in at various intervals during the morning to discuss their operations and to give them and me the opportunity to decide where my background and experience would be most productive for each of them and most satisfying for me.

John Lorenz, the Deputy Librarian was the first to join Mr. Mumford and me that morning. He was a fairly tall, rather soft spoken, gentle man who seemed glad to see me and welcomed me’ with a firm hand shake. He spoke of his responsibilities and work as Mr. Mumford’s deputy and how his office shared in the overall administration of the Library. He asked about my career and experience in the Cleveland Public Library. He seemed to be especially interested in how public library administration differed from that of a federal library and about public library financing and budgeting. Mr. Mumford advised him that I had administered several branch libraries in Cleveland. After
about a half an hour Mr. Lorenz excused himself to attend another meeting.

Fraser Poole, the Director of Preservation and Building Planning was the next to join us. He also was friendly, not quite as tall but bigger in girth and more talkative than Mr. Lorenz. He talked about his work and responsibilities in the preservation of library materials and about his work in the planning of what was to be the third library building on Capitol Hill. He was particularly interested in the experience I had gained while I was Chief of the Binding and Book Repair Division and the work I had done in building planning while I had been Business Manager in the Cleveland Library. Mr. Mumford told Mr. Poole that he had appointed me as Chief of Binding and Book Repair Division in Cleveland and could vouch for my experience in that area. Also after about a half an hour, Mr. Poole excused himself pleading another appointment.

Mr. William (Bill) Welsh was the third director that I met that morning. He at the time was the Director of the Processing Department. He was fairly well built, breezy and flamboyant. He described the various divisions of the Processing Department, book ordering, cataloging, etc., etc. I was frank and told him that my experience in those areas was limited, that the book ordering experience I had had was the book ordering I had done in the several branch Libraries I had administered and the book ordering and cataloging I had done in a LI.S. Army library before I transferred into the infantry during World War Two. I told him that if I were to be given a choice my preference at that moment would be to work in either the reference or buildings/preservation areas. He thanked me for my candor and honesty, wished me luck and excused himself.

My last interview was with Mr. Paul Berry, the Director of the Reference Department. He was a tall, handsome and well dressed man. He greeted me with a warm smile and friendly handshake. He seemed to be genuinely glad to see me and made me feel at home. I immediately felt that he was a kindred spirit. I knew instantly that this was a man that I could work with. He spoke of the administrative functions of the Reference Department Office, which did not seem too different from the work I had done when I was the Assistant Head of the Main Library which administered the divisions of the Main Library in Cleveland. He described the work of the various divisions of the Reference Department and the challenges they provided in serving their respective clienteles with the kind of enthusiasm and dedication that I had been used to in the Cleveland Public Library. He was genuinely interested in the reference work I had done in the branches and in the Main Library in Cleveland. Around 12:30 P.M. Mr. Mumford said, “Let’s break for lunch. Let me see if John Lorenz can join us.” It turned out that Mr. Lorenz could. On that day I was treated to a most pleasant lunch at the Monocle, one of Capitol Hill’s well known restaurants, a short distance down First Street, near the Union Station, a place that I later learned was frequented by Congressmen and Senators and other people of note.

The lunch at the Monocle on that day enabled me to become better acquainted with Mr. Berry and Mr. Lorenz and they with me. In fact it was then I decided that if I was going to work at the Library of Congress that the Reference Department would be the place for me, that Mr. Berry was the one that I would like to work with and voiced that preference when Mr. Mumford asked what my thoughts were on the subject. Mr. Berry said that he thought that he could use my support in the Reference Department, as a special assistant, that it would take a little while to develop a job description. He continued that he had felt for some time that the Reference Department could use a program manager or some kind of planning assistant. He asked if that was something that might interest me. I replied that it would. Our luncheon meeting ended on that most satisfying note.

As we walked back to the Library, Mr. Berry asked about my flight schedule back to Cleveland. I said that I had planned to be at Washington National Airport by at least 5:45 P.M. to make my 6:45 P.M. flight back. He then suggested that I return to the Reference Department with him to talk some more about the kind of position that he had in mind. I agreed with alacrity. This seemed to please both Mr. Mumford and Mr. Lorenz. When we got back to Mr. Mumford’s office door, we shook hands. I thanked Mr. Mumford and John Lorenz for having received me so kindly and so warmly and for a wonderful lunch. In parting, Mr. Mumford speaking to Mr. Berry and me, said, “keep me posted on developments,” shook hands with me as he and Mr. Lorenz went to their adjoining offices.

Mr. Berry then escorted me to his office in the Reference Department. It was not to far from the suite of offices occupied by The Librarian of Congress and The Deputy Librarian of Congress, which in later years I got to know as Mahogany Row, so known because of the fine woodwork in those offices. They were also located in what was architecturally known in the Library of Congress as a Curtain. Mr. Berry’s office was located in what was known also architecturally as a Pavilion, which was located at the far end of the Librarian’s Corridor.

As we walked down that corridor on that afternoon, I kept saying to myself, “Is it possible that I am about to have the opportunity to come to work in a place so full of beauty?” I could not keep my eyes from the beautiful artwork that decorated the ceiling of that corridor, which I could see was an extension of the beauty found in the Great Hall.

Mr. Berry and I spent two productive hours in his office in the Pavilion getting better acquainted. Those couple of hours enabled him to tell me about the history of the Reference Department, about his career in the library, that in many ways paralleled mine. He sketched out the functions of the various divisions of the department, his thoughts about changes that might be made in them and in the operations of the department as a whole, and finally how I might fit in to the scheme of things.

When it came time for me to leave, I was now certain that Mr. Berry and I were kindred spirits, and that my association with him professionally would be a good one. When we parted on that afternoon of April 20, 1970, Mr. Berry said he would be in touch before too long. I thanked him for his hospitality and kindness, saying that I looked forward to hearing from him.

It was 5:30 P.M. when I left the Library of Congress on that day and was lucky enough to catch a cab at the corner of First and Independence Avenue. Traffic by that time was quite heavy because a good many government workers were on their way home. For a few moments I was apprehensive as to whether I’d get to the airport on time. I had no reason to worry because the cabby was able to get me to the airport by 6:00 P.M. My flight home was uneventful and on time. It had been a full, productive and satisfying day.

I was now faced with the reality of having to tell Grace and the boys that I was committed to taking a job at the Library of Congress, that all of us had to get used to the idea that we were going to have to move to another city, that we were going to have to decide where we would like to live in the Washington, D.C. area, sell our Cleveland home, select and make arrangements with an out-of-state mover, etc., etc. in a relatively short period of time. These and many other related thoughts were running through my mind when I returned home on the evening of April 20, 1970.

I recall it was close to 9:00 P.M. when I walked in on my family that evening. Grace had fed the boys dinner at the usual time and was keeping dinner warm for herself and me as she had done on many other occasions when I was unable to make it home on time. They were anxiously waiting to hear about my day in the nation’s Capital and at the Library of Congress.

They listened to my review of my interviews with Mr. Mumford and his department heads at the Library with great interest and they reacted with excitement at my description of the beauty of the Library of Congress and the other buildings on Capitol Hill, etc. However, when I told them that I had committed myself to taking a job in the Reference Department at the Library, they were genuinely happy and excited for me, yet I could not help getting the feeling that making the move was not going to be easy for them. Nevertheless they congratulated me and did all they could to make
me feel that they were all for making the move. From the very beginning Grace became the “gung-ho” one and in reality took the leadership in planning the logistics for the move and immediately set in motion plans to get the house ready for sale, etc.

Well before the end of May of 19 70, Mr. Berry sent me a job description for the kind of position he had described during our meeting in April along with the grade and salary that position offered, and a form for me to sign if the position as described and the salary was acceptable. At the same time I was asked to indicate the date that I could report for work. I lost no time in approving and signing the offer and advised Mr. Berry that I felt that we ought to be able to sell our home and complete all necessary work and business necessary to make our move to the Washington area
by July 6 and to enable me to start work at the Library of Congress on July 13.

From that time on things moved very quickly. On the 24th  of May, I received letters from Mr. Berry and Mr. Mumford both dated May 21, 1970 telling me how pleased they were that I would be joining them early in July. Mr. Berry also advised me the he was making arrangements for me to come to the Library for two days in June for consultation and orientation prior to reporting finally on July 13.

On May 28, Mr. Berry wrote to tell me that it had been approved for me to come to the Library for the two days of consultation on June 2-3, asking me to arrive on Tuesday June 2 between the hours of 8:00 and 8:30 A.M.

From the time that I had returned from my initial visit to the Library of Congress on the 20th of April, Grace and the boys and I had been working almost night and day getting the house ready for sale, painting the house inside and out, getting rid of everything that we did not intend to move and taking care of the countless other chores, business and financial items that must be done in connection with a move out of state, What remained to be done was to find a place to live in the Washington area before July 6 which we had established as our move date in our contract with
Allied Movers, Inc. We had signed a realty contract to place our home on sale as of June 1.

I had decided to drive and take Grace with me to Washington on June lst. The plan was to leave early on that day so that Grace and I could start looking for an apartment in the Washington area, that if we were not successful on that first day, then while I was occupied with Mr. Berry at the Library on June 2 and 3rd, Grace would continue looking for a place to live somewhere around Capitol Hill, near the Library if possible. Ed and Paul were to remain at home and serve as our representatives with the realtor on those first three days in dune in the showing of our home to any prospective buyers who might come during that time.

We did manage to leave for Washington, D.C. early on the morning of June 1 and arrived there in good time so that we were able to spend several hours before nightfall searching for an apartment on Capitol Hill and neighborhoods not to far from the Hill. We had hoped that we would be able to find something decent and in a price range that would fit our budget. We were disappointed. At supper time we gave up for the day and went to our hotel. We felt that it would be wise for us to get cleaned up, have something to eat and then spend the evening resting for the next two days that I was to spend at the Library and Grace who was then going to be on her own continuing the search for a place to live.

As I expected, June 2nd and June 3rd were full days for me at the Library of Congress with Mr. Berry. My orientation in the work of the Reference Department was thorough and Mr. Berry made sure that I not only met the members of his immediate staff but also got around to meet as many of the Chiefs and or Assistant Chiefs of the various divisions of the department. They were two very productive days for me. Grace, however, spent two very frustrating days in the search for an apartment. Each day at 5:30 P.M. when I finished my sessions at the Library she would meet me there
tired, dispirited and disgusted because she had not been successful in her search. Each night we’d go back to our hotel room to relax for a while. Then after a refreshing shower, we’d dress for dinner, find a nice place to eat and enjoy the rest of the evening.

We did not despair at not having found a place on Capitol Hill because we had planned to stay in the Washington Metropolitan area until the evening of June 4, the idea being that we would spend that full free day investigating apartments in Maryland and Virginia. However, it was imperative that we find and rent an apartment before we left for home on June 4. That was a must because we had to be back home that evening to be ready for Paul’s high school graduation on June 5! Many times in the years that followed, I have thought on how naive we must have been at the time in allowing such a short time to accomplish such an important and major item of business.

We checked out of our hotel room in Washington, D.C. in early morning of June 4 and drove first into Maryland because Grace and I thought it would be nice to try to find a place in Silver Spring near the church where a friend of ours was the Senior Pastor. As luck would have it, even though we had spent the major portion of the day in that area, we had been unsuccessful in our search. By 5:00 P.M. we were frantic. We had hoped that we would have accomplished our mission in time to leave for home before dark. In desperation we got on the Beltway and sped into Virginia. Using a rental guidebook we had been given at the hotel, we decided to get off onto Little River Turnpike (Route 236). The first apartment complex we found was located not far from the Beltway exit, in Annandale. It was miserable, not worth the rent being asked. I was about ready to give up and start for home, thinking we’d have to come back in a few days to continue our search, when Grace said, “let’s try one more place before we go.”

That place was an apartment complex known as Fairfax Square in Fairfax City, that fronted on Little River Turnpike located at the 9900 block. We arrived at the rental office just before closing time and were lucky enough to find the apartment manager there who was willing to stay overtime to discuss our most urgent need. When we sheepishly told her that we hoped that a suitable apartment might be available for us to move into sometime after July 4, too our surprise and amazement, she said that by chance there was a six room apartment located on the second floor of one of their two story garden type apartment buildings situated in one of their secluded wooded areas. She added that the apartment was currently occupied but that the present occupants would be vacating the premises around the end of dune, that she would be glad to call the lady of the house to see if she would agree to let us see the apartment. The Lord was with us. The lady agreed to show us the place then and there!

The apartment manager drove us around to the back of the complex to a nice looking apartment building that bore 9930 Fairfax Square as its address, and took us up to apartment 19 an end unit on the second floor. It’s occupant welcomed us warmly and showed us through. After having seen such poor apartments that had been shown us in Washington, D.C. and in Maryland, we were agreeably surprised to find here at last six good size, attractive rooms and two baths, which we felt suited our needs at the time. It turned out that the occupant wanted to leave all the floor carpeting and all the curtains and drapes for a reasonable amount of money. The white carpeting was good Lees quality and almost new and the curtains and drapes were also of good quality, also fairly new and in good condition, all of which pleased Grace. We lost no time, and then and there purchased the furnishings from the tenant. After thanking her for her friendliness and hospitality, we returned to the rental office with the manager, signed the necessary rental papers and left the required fee to hold the apartment. We had been lucky at the very end of our last day of our quest. We had managed to secure a place to live that was decent and at an affordable monthly rent. Yes, we had a place, as the manager told us that would be cleaned and painted when we arrived on July 6.

We bid the apartment manager farewell and thanked her profusely for staying over so late, well past her office hours, to provide us with a place to live. She had been a life saver. It was 8:30 P.M. when we left her. Though tired and worn out, we were leaving Virginia in a happy frame of mind and hungry. We stopped for a half an hour at a fast food place on Little River Turnpike on the way to the Beltway and our route home. It was 9:30 P.M. when we were finally out of the metropolitan area and homeward bound, and not before 1:30 A.M. when we arrived at our home in Cleveland, Ohio on June 5, 1970. We had made it back as we had promised, in time for Paul’s graduation on that afternoon!

June 5 that year was also a happy day because that was the day that our Cleveland home was sold, to a young couple who had come to see the house with their parents while we were gone. I had worried that we were not going to be able to sell the house before we were scheduled to move. Now that that worry was out of the way we could concentrate on the countless other tasks that had to be done before move time.

Also during this time Mr. Berry kept sending me reading materials about the Reference Department and its divisions along with many other documents pertaining to the rules and regulations of the Library of Congress to help me to prepare myself for a smooth entry into the work and service of the National Library’.

We moved from our modest ranch house at 4115 West 145th Street in Cleveland’s West Park area on Monday morning, July 6, 1970. It was a home that Grace and I had watched being built from scratch in 1950. We had put so much of ourselves into it. We had done all the landscaping ourselves, planted the grass front and back, planted all the shrubbery, trees and flowers ourselves, and done all our interior decoration as well. In 1957 we had designed and contracted the building of a nice size family room with fireplace as a warm and comfortable addition at the back of the house, which had also enabled us to create a nice patio, reached by a side door in the addition. Grace and I had lived comfortably and happily and raised our two sons there over the past twenty years. Needless to say we drove out of the driveway of our home of twenty years with heavy hearts that morning in July 1970, as we began our journey to a new life in the southeast.

The weather that morning also did nothing to dispel the gloom that had enveloped us as we drove on to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, on our way to Virginia. The sky already filled with dark, ominous clouds began to sound off with thunder and lightning. By the time we reached the Somerset, Pennsylvania rest stop, the clouds opened all their stops and began to dump tons of water, making it almost impossible to see the road ahead. Without hesitation we welcomed the chance to get off the stormy road and sought the comfort of a rest stop until the weather eased.

After about a half an hour, we were able to take to the road again. As luck would have it, it was not too long before we ran into heavy rain again. From that point on, it was heavy rain all the way to Virginia. This made it necessary for us to make many more stops than we would have normally made. The downpour was so heavy at times that we had to get off the road for safety.