All, Jim, thank you for expressing the sad news and your beautiful tribute. I'm not sure if I ever personally met Reggie, but I certainly knew who he was and our paths crossed a few times early in my career. When I was the "Children's Assistant at River Rouge Public Library (1988-1989), Reggie would always call asking for our interloan requests. I still share stories about how interloan worked back then and Reggie's regular calls. Regards, Susan On Tue, Aug 25, 2020 at 12:37 PM Jim Flury via Michlib-l <michlib-l@mcls.org> wrote:
All,
I need to share some sad news. Our longtime colleague, Director of Ecorse Public Library and member of The Library Network Board of Trustees Reginald (Reggie) Williams passed away August 14, 2020.
Reggie received a B.S. in Early Childhood Development and an M.S.L.S. degree, both from Wayne State University. He was a long-time employee of Wayne County, eventually culminating with his appointment as Wayne County Librarian, the position from which he retired in 2001.
Reggie undertook a number of significant, successful initiatives throughout his career, including the re-opening of the closed Ecorse Public Library in 1991, the "Wayne Babies...Live, Learn and Play" project in 2008, the School Youth Initiative Project, Presidency of the Ecorse Rotary Club and also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Downriver Council for the Arts. Throughout his career Reggie also served as a mentor to many young librarians, helping them to become established in the profession.
A number of us who worked in a building in Wayne a decade or four ago that was then named the "WOLF Service Center", were fortunate to have been able to work alongside Reggie, to see his hard work and dedication and perhaps most importantly, to appreciate his sense of humor. My favorite memory of Reggie, who was always, always the consummate professional and the very epitome of customer service, was of him working in what was called the Reference/Interloan Department, one phone in each ear, working on interlibrary loan requests for/with two libraries simultaneously. Double the customer service! That was Reg.
Reggie was a great librarian, and an even better person. He will be missed.
Jim Flury
Jim Flury Technical Services Manager The Library Network 41365 Vincenti Court Novi, MI 48375 248-536-3100, ext 133 Fax 248-536-3098 jflury@tln.lib.mi.us
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