Roughly 30 years after seeing an ad in the newspaper for an open job at C.H. Booth Library, Assistant Director Beryl Harrison has retired.

Friends, family, and those who know Harrison through the library recently shared their thoughts on what she has meant to the institution and the town.

Harrison was hired as the library’s first reference librarian in 1990. She started the day after Martin Luther King, Jr, Day.

She had just finished running the Garden Club of Newtown’s annual holiday sale, which was then held at the Matthew Curtis House, when her younger son, Trent Harrison, noted an announcement in The Newtown Bee. As they both recalled recently, the library needed a reference librarian. Harrison remembers counting money at the time. She visited the library the following Monday to inquire about the position, learning the application period had closed.

But when she was home later, the phone rang. It was then-library director Janet Woycik. Beyond Harrison’s master’s degree in library science, she wanted to know what groups Harrison was part of and the types of activities she did in town.

The next time Woycik called, she wanted to know when Harrison could start working at the library.

“And here I am, 30-some years later,” Harrison said in a recent phone interview. “... It was just what I needed and wanted.”

Harrison credits Woycik’s hiring technique as one of the reasons the library staff “was always like a family.”

When Harrison first started, it was a part-time position. She has filled many different roles at the library since then, including heading the reference department, serving as assistant director, and twice serving as interim director. The Newtown Bee also covered Harrison's 25th anniversary at the library here.

“She just did so much work that the public probably never saw,” current C.H. Booth Library Director Douglas Lord said, adding that Harrison will be missed.

It did not occur to many library staff, Lord observed, that the library would ever “be without Beryl.” He said that reaction is a testament to her strength and her unflappable nature. She always completed work with a smile and a gleam in her eye, he added.

“There’s no replacing her. We’re not going to find another Beryl,” Lord said, adding that once everything is more settled, due to the pandemic, the library will advertise a redefined version of the position.

Trent Harrison, who teaches at Newtown High School, said he frequently advises students to visit the library. When they would come back talking about the “nice sweet woman on the third floor” without knowing they were talking about his mother, he always found it entertaining.

“She will help anyone with anything, puts in extra hours” Trent Harrison said, adding that he hopes his mother will find time to enjoy gardening and to visit New Hampshire. “It’s been a great 30 years for her.”

C.H. Booth Children’s Librarian Alana Bennison hopes there will be a “send-off” celebration in person “when conditions permit it” for Harrison’s retirement.

When Bennison started working at the library in 1997, the library was temporarily housed on the Fairfield Hills campus while an addition was underway.

“She always takes time for everybody,” Bennison said, explaining that Harrison has a natural ability to swoop in and calm things down. She makes people feel better while defusing uncomfortable situations. “... Nothing seems to flap her.”

“That’s the most endearing thing about her, she just takes everything in stride and makes it better,” said Bennison. “[She] solves the problem, takes care of it.”

Harrison’s knowledge of the staff and the community is irreplaceable, Bennison observed.

Former C.H. Booth Library Board of Trustees member and chair Bob Geckle said, “She was an individual who was always able and willing to jump in and fill any number of roles at the library.” He added that he is personally and professionally fond of Harrison.

“I hope that she has a healthy and long retirement,” Geckle said, adding that her retirement is well deserved and he knows she will spend time gardening.

“I wish her well, and I think it is wonderful that she had so many successful years at the library,” said Geckle.

Former C.H. Booth Library reference librarian Andrea Zimmermann said not only is Harrison a skilled librarian and administrator, “but she is a really wonderful person who loves Newtown.”

Zimmermann added that Harrison has a natural curiosity and equanimity as well as being a great problem solver who understands human nature. All of those attributes contributed to Harrison’s affecting positive change while at the library.

Nearly everyone who shared their thoughts about Harrison’s retirement mentioned her jam, and Zimmermann said Harrison is both generous with her time and “her jam making.”

Another great quality Harrison brought to the library is her advocacy for preservation of artifacts and local history, Zimmermann noted.

“And I think that is so important for an institution like the library... It is the perfect place for people to access that kind of material, whether it is digital or physical,” said Zimmermann.

Overall, Zimmermann said, Harrison’s knowledge, commitment, and skills brought a richness to the library “that will never be rivaled.”

Clare Harrison, who is married to Harrison’s older son, Derek, said many people would echo her thoughts on the impact her mother-in-law has on those around her.

“She leads by example, that’s for sure,” Clare Harrison wrote in an e-mail. “I have learned from her how to be a good leader, a good citizen to the community, a good parent, and a good friend. I’ve known Beryl for close to 25 years now and it’s like she is a unicorn. If you were to describe what she means to family, friends, the community, the library, it sounds almost too good to be true. And yet, she is the perfect blend of all those traits — intelligence, strength, compassion, authenticity. They come together in Beryl and come out in her service to the community; in her willingness to help anyone and everyone; in her being constant in Newtown; and being a trusted friend everywhere she goes.

“Somehow she manages all of this in the most unassuming way,” Clare Harrison said. “She does all she does quietly and behind the scenes, never wanting credit and always just doing for others because it’s who she is. That’s what really makes her a unicorn — rare and so special.”

While looking back on her 30 years at the library, Harrison mostly spoke about the staff and the patrons.

“The staff has always been wonderful,” she said. Later she said, “I think the town, at least I hope they do, treasures the library.”

Her favorite way she has left an impact on the library is how she helped make people feel welcome. When people would come up to her to ask a question, they would sometimes be afraid, in case the question was “stupid” or “dumb,” but Harrison said, “There is no such thing.”

“It’s a very comfortable place, and I hope it remains that way,” Harrison said.

With her retirement now ahead of her, Harrison is looking forward to gardening, visiting New Hampshire, and staying local.

“There’s enough to do in Newtown, I find, [between] the programs, the community center... and friends just getting together,” said Harrison.