Heroes of the Library: Peter Fuller
By Connie Ketchum and Kate Manahan
This is the fourth of eleven monthly installments of “Heroes of the Library,” a column to commemorate the Kennebunk Free Library’s centennial.
In last month’s column we showcased George Parsons for building the brick library on Main Street and donating it to the Kennebunk Free Library Association in 1907. There it stood and served, growing its collection from 6,000 to 24,000 volumes over the next 78 years. Yet, the 4,200 sq ft. library that had once been characterized as “adequate in every way” by 1985 was feeling cramped. Upstairs they were out of shelving and display room, downstairs the children’s room was squeezed into a space that had no natural light, and office space was critically limited.
The Board of Trustees for the library and many active citizens recognized the desperate need and spent ten years, from 1985-1995, appropriating space, planning, designing, fund raising, contracting consultants, architects and builders for an expansion.
Before anyone could dream a new library floor plan there were hurdles to be crossed. The library was boxed in by Fletcher and Main Streets, the First Parish Unitarian Universalist Church, Marier Real Estate (now Prudential) and the Webhannet Women’s Club (now the Dorothy Stevens Center). The library parking lot could accommodate only a dozen cars. After months of creative problem solving Marier worked out a deal for the land around his building with the library. Over the course of several years the Webhannet Women’s Club voted, generously and graciously, to give their land to the library. They chose to move their building, with volunteer labor, to its present site by the West Kennebunk fire station. Herculean efforts were made before the ambitious project of coming up with capital for the addition ever began.
Two million dollars were needed to build the expansion. Who would take on this daunting project to raise over half of that sum locally? As with many public and time-consuming positions, the person who gets the job is the one who is willing to take on the responsibility. Newly retired from Eastman Kodak Company where he served as the Director of National Accounts, Peter Fuller, library trustee, was vocal about the substantial need for more space and was thus perceived as the leader of the project. In 1993 he took on the job and the title of Chairman of the Capital Campaign. With his natural leadership abilities and his emotional involvement with the project he was able to comfortably ask people for their financial support. “I never could have done this by myself,” he adds as he describes others on the team such as Durward Parkinson, Pat Bibber and Bill DeJonge as “a powerful force.”
The expansion project was an example of beautiful timing. The project took on a life of its own. It had a leader, a committed Board of Trustees, a devoted and flexible library staff, wide appreciation of purpose among citizens and it had teeth when the donations started to come in. The dynamic and committed fundraising team enlisted the support of Senator Edmund Muskie to be the Honorary Chairman of the Capital Campaign and remarkably raised more than one million dollars through private funds in just over one year.
Lead gifts targeted for specific rooms within the new addition were donated by Elmina Sewall, Pearl L. Coleman in Harrison “Hank” Coleman’s name and Mary Latimer. The masterful capital campaign was guided by professional consultant James Tomney. With the ball rolling the townspeople voted in 1993, with a distinctive majority, to support the $900,000 bond needed to augment the project. The need for improving the children’s library was a driving call and the need for more space was indisputable. This growing town was ready for access to the resources a more substantial library would provide.
In 1993, Boston architect firm A. Anthony Tappe and Associates was hired to work with Portland contractors F. W. Cunningham to build the expansion. Tappe’s firm specialized in institutional and private libraries and proved to be brilliant at matching the old style of the historic building with the new space that tripled the size of the library. While Tappe was responsible for the architectural integrity, Library Director Penny Savage was visiting other libraries, pouring over blueprints and forecasting needs such as future computer terminals to create a highly functional library. To their credit, the architects were receptive to her expert contributions. Savage was also responsible for orchestrating the move to the temporary library site on Water St., farming out employees to area libraries to preserve jobs, and deciding what to store and how to make the whole project work for the patrons.
Any homeowner who has ever hosted a construction project knows how many daily details come up that need prompt attention. This is how Peter Fuller became a hero of the library. He had the foresight to hire a Clerk of the Works, Jim Beaulieu, to manage the project. And, he also showed up on the construction site nearly every day to check in on the myriad details. There were weekly meetings with the builders and biweekly meetings together with the builders and the architects. Fuller could have chosen a restful retirement playing more golf, which he loves. But, he said after moving every 2-3 years for his work he “wanted to do something worthwhile” for his community in his retirement.
There are few projects he could have taken on at that time that would have been seen as more worthwhile. While serving as President of the Board of Trustees Fuller mobilized and steered a major project that added value to the heart of our town. He was profoundly satisfied on the 15th of October 1995 at the public dedication ceremony to celebrate the completion of the new addition. Fuller said in his address that day, “Commitment is what transforms a promise into reality.”
A debt of thanks is due to Peter Fuller and his competent team for their commitments of time and talent to the library. With bulldogged attention to detail, they created a highly functional and aesthetically appropriate building to carry the library into the new century. Today the library serves 9,000 patrons, nearly twice as many as were served before the expansion. And since 1985, when the expansion project began, circulates more than two and a half times the materials, annually.
KFL trustees during the building years
Do you know
which of your neighbors and community leaders helped build the
library you enjoy today?
Please take a moment to thank these people for the substantial
contributions they made to the benefit of our town.
A complete list of Trustees from the Library Board during the building years: Peter Fuller, Mark Mikeriz, Phyllis Hill, Scott Rocray, Edward (Ted ) Adams, Durward Parkinson, Patricia Bibber, Steven Bowley, Bill DeJonge, Peter Donovan, Joe Foster, Lynne Gobeil, Judy Hersey, Bruce Lewia, Arline Olson, David S. Peterson, Bruce Read, Claudette Thyng, Le Rae Dwight, Nancy Downing, Harlan Taylor, John Cummings, Carolyn Bergen, Charles Hendershott, Diana Rush, Kenneth Brandt, Ann Jones, Mark Baker, Phillip Newell, Peter Field, Sonia Plass, Thomas Murphy, Robert Walsh, Roy Gordon, Judy Keating, Lynn Hendricks, Betsey Hennessey, Thomas Baum, Earl Adams, Tim Mabon, Deborah Rowe, Joanne Stewart.
Thank you all.