Willa Catherine FEEKE
We learned only recently that our former colleague Willa Catherine Feeke died in 2010. She was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1930 and, after graduating from the University of Toronto, came to the United States to be with her sister who had married an American musician. Willa never gave up her Canadian citizenship and always used her green card. She joined NYPL as a young adult librarian but later changed to adult work. Her knowledge of literature was extraordinary. She worked in several branches, including Sedgwick, Inwood and Spuyten Duyvil, where she was branch librarian.
Gloria Silverman: I remember Willa Feeke with respect and affection. She was my Branch Librarian when I first came to work for the Library. I worked with her at Spuyten Duyvil for five years until I finished my library degree. Willa was a wonderful librarian who really knew her collection and her readers. She always called them our readers, not patrons or customers. That makes her sound like an “old-fashioned” librarian, which she was. But, at the time she retired in the late 1990s, she was also mastering the new technologies coming into the library. She was smart and perseverant and wasn’t about to let a mere computer get in the way of doing her job, no matter how aggravating the learning process!
Willa was a sharing teacher. She took me with her to Book Selection and talked through her choices, then trusted me to make choices. Weeding the collection with her was never an onerous chore, it was more like “visiting” the books on the shelves. When we had to discard, it was like saying goodbye to old friends. Willa might even patch up some for a few more years of shelf life because they were out of print and too important or unique to toss aside.
Willa did not suffer fools gladly, but she was a loyal, kind person and supervisor. She also had a strong sense of justice and a sense of humor. I feel fortunate to have known her and trained with her. She taught me a lot, and we had some great conversations. And she could recite entire poems from memory!
Estelle Friedman recalls Willa as someone who never sat back, who felt there were always tasks to be done. One approach she instituted after becoming branch librarian was to move library card registration from the over-busy clerical desk to the information desk. Giving new borrowers un-rushed, personal service was a high priority.
In August 1998, when Willa's eyesight began deteriorating due to macular degeneration and she felt she was unable to do her job as well as she wished, she decided to retire.
See New York Public Library Retirees Newsletter, Issue 46, page 3, 4
See New York Public Library Retirees Newsletter, Issue 34, page 20.
We learned only recently that our former colleague Willa Catherine Feeke died in 2010. She was born in Toronto, Canada, in 1930 and, after graduating from the University of Toronto, came to the United States to be with her sister who had married an American musician. Willa never gave up her Canadian citizenship and always used her green card. She joined NYPL as a young adult librarian but later changed to adult work. Her knowledge of literature was extraordinary. She worked in several branches, including Sedgwick, Inwood and Spuyten Duyvil, where she was branch librarian.
Gloria Silverman: I remember Willa Feeke with respect and affection. She was my Branch Librarian when I first came to work for the Library. I worked with her at Spuyten Duyvil for five years until I finished my library degree. Willa was a wonderful librarian who really knew her collection and her readers. She always called them our readers, not patrons or customers. That makes her sound like an “old-fashioned” librarian, which she was. But, at the time she retired in the late 1990s, she was also mastering the new technologies coming into the library. She was smart and perseverant and wasn’t about to let a mere computer get in the way of doing her job, no matter how aggravating the learning process!
Willa was a sharing teacher. She took me with her to Book Selection and talked through her choices, then trusted me to make choices. Weeding the collection with her was never an onerous chore, it was more like “visiting” the books on the shelves. When we had to discard, it was like saying goodbye to old friends. Willa might even patch up some for a few more years of shelf life because they were out of print and too important or unique to toss aside.
Willa did not suffer fools gladly, but she was a loyal, kind person and supervisor. She also had a strong sense of justice and a sense of humor. I feel fortunate to have known her and trained with her. She taught me a lot, and we had some great conversations. And she could recite entire poems from memory!
Estelle Friedman recalls Willa as someone who never sat back, who felt there were always tasks to be done. One approach she instituted after becoming branch librarian was to move library card registration from the over-busy clerical desk to the information desk. Giving new borrowers un-rushed, personal service was a high priority.
In August 1998, when Willa's eyesight began deteriorating due to macular degeneration and she felt she was unable to do her job as well as she wished, she decided to retire.
See New York Public Library Retirees Newsletter, Issue 46, page 3, 4
See New York Public Library Retirees Newsletter, Issue 34, page 20.