VILLAS – Edward Carson always wanted to go to sea. It’s all he thought about as a boy. Instead, he became a librarian; Carson thinks it was just his fate.
As a youngster, Carson suffered from frail health that blocked his dream; he knew his basic seamanship and was comfortable around boats, but he was never well enough to join the Navy or Coast Guard even as he grew into his teenage years.
He was part of the Library Club in school, and his teachers constantly urged him to become a librarian, he related.
“I think it was fate,” Carson smiled; “everyone from teachers to friends, to other librarians seemed to conspire against my dream of going to sea.”
In July 1987, he was working part-time as a librarian for the Wilmington (Del.) News-Journal when he and his friends saw an ad for a librarian for Lower Township, which was where he and his parents now lived.
Carson had finished his Master of Library Sciences at Drexel University by then, and with strong arm twisting, Carson applied and was immediately hired.
“For over 30 years, the Lower Township Library has been my home; I don’t regret a minute of it,” he added. “Everyone I knew was sure that the library was my fate, except me, but it worked out just as it should have,” he concluded.
To contact Jim McCarty, email jmccarty@cmcherald.com.
