Making one last visit to the library at the state Culture Center, J.D. Waggoner will retire this week as director of the West Virginia Library Commission. A native of Georges Creek, he has worked for the commission in one capacity or another for more than 40 years.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- At 62, he's retiring this week as director of the West Virginia Library Commission, a fancy title for state librarian.
As a boy growing up in exceptionally humble circumstances on Georges Creek, the idea that he would retire one day from a top position in state government was unthinkable. And something to do with libraries? Ha. That's a good one.
But sometimes life just kind of happens. When opportunities knocked, he opened the doors.
He started with the library commission 43 years ago as a part-time mail runner while finishing a degree in history. While he figured out what to do with that history degree, he took a job in the state library reference department. Just marking time, mind you.
He got a master's degree in library science and a couple of promotions. Next thing he knew, he was the head honcho.
J.D. Waggoner has come a very long way.
"I was born and raised on Georges Creek, five miles east of Charleston on Route 60. We lived on the hill, 120 steps to the house. The back end sat on the hill. The front end was 30 feet in the air, a typical West Virginia home.
"I grew up with my mom and two sisters. I was the baby boy, so I actually grew up with three mothers, a lot of people giving me instructions. That worked out pretty well, because I ended up in the library profession, which is 80 percent female. Through my whole career, I didn't have a male supervisor until I got in administration.
"My dad died of cancer when I was 3. He was 27. Mom was 25. The three of us children were 7, 5 and 3. My mom was a phenomenal lady, just 4-foot-10, but made of steel.
"She dropped out of high school at 17 to get married. She never drove a car. If we were going anywhere, it was on the Greyhound bus. About time I got in junior high, Mom got her GED and worked for the Charleston National Bank as an elevator operator. When they built the new building, they didn't need an elevator operator, so they moved her into bookkeeping.
"Early on, I wanted to be a fireman. I've been a volunteer firefighter in Malden for 40 some years. I decided finally that I was going to be a history teacher.
"The first complete book I read was because my fifth-grade teacher made me. Yet once I discovered reading, it changed everything. That's why I started out in history. Through reading, I became a Civil War buff. It all ties together.
"When I was a kid, we had a series of Zane Grey books in a bookcase my dad had made. Books were always there. And as difficult as things were financially, the newspaper was always there.
"When my kids were little, it was Dr. Seuss' book of the month. Some of the best times I remember are sitting in an old platform rocker with my two kids in my lap and reading to them. We don't do that enough.
"My mom was determined I would go to college, but we didn't have the money. The dean of women at DuPont High, Violet Kimball, put together a financial aid package for me to go to Morris Harvey College.
In my third year, I decided teaching wasn't for me, but I was close to a history degree, so I got my undergraduate degree in history.
"A young man I graduated from high school with, his sister worked in employment security and knew the personnel officer of the library commission. I had gotten married in September of '68 and was looking for a part-time job, because I was only two years into my degree.
"I got a job with the library commission as a mail runner. I worked from 1 to 5. I drove an old green Ford Econoline. At that time, the library commission was in two buildings in Kanawha City and two here at the Capitol. I moved the mail around.
"When I graduated from Morris Harvey in '71, I was totally unemployable. What are you going to do with a history degree? There was an opening here in the reference library. I figured I would stay a couple of years and figure out what I was going to do. Forty-three years later, here I am.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- At 62, he's retiring this week as director of the West Virginia Library Commission, a fancy title for state librarian.
As a boy growing up in exceptionally humble circumstances on Georges Creek, the idea that he would retire one day from a top position in state government was unthinkable. And something to do with libraries? Ha. That's a good one.
But sometimes life just kind of happens. When opportunities knocked, he opened the doors.
He started with the library commission 43 years ago as a part-time mail runner while finishing a degree in history. While he figured out what to do with that history degree, he took a job in the state library reference department. Just marking time, mind you.
He got a master's degree in library science and a couple of promotions. Next thing he knew, he was the head honcho.
J.D. Waggoner has come a very long way.
"I was born and raised on Georges Creek, five miles east of Charleston on Route 60. We lived on the hill, 120 steps to the house. The back end sat on the hill. The front end was 30 feet in the air, a typical West Virginia home.
"I grew up with my mom and two sisters. I was the baby boy, so I actually grew up with three mothers, a lot of people giving me instructions. That worked out pretty well, because I ended up in the library profession, which is 80 percent female. Through my whole career, I didn't have a male supervisor until I got in administration.
"My dad died of cancer when I was 3. He was 27. Mom was 25. The three of us children were 7, 5 and 3. My mom was a phenomenal lady, just 4-foot-10, but made of steel.
"She dropped out of high school at 17 to get married. She never drove a car. If we were going anywhere, it was on the Greyhound bus. About time I got in junior high, Mom got her GED and worked for the Charleston National Bank as an elevator operator. When they built the new building, they didn't need an elevator operator, so they moved her into bookkeeping.
"Early on, I wanted to be a fireman. I've been a volunteer firefighter in Malden for 40 some years. I decided finally that I was going to be a history teacher.
"The first complete book I read was because my fifth-grade teacher made me. Yet once I discovered reading, it changed everything. That's why I started out in history. Through reading, I became a Civil War buff. It all ties together.
"When I was a kid, we had a series of Zane Grey books in a bookcase my dad had made. Books were always there. And as difficult as things were financially, the newspaper was always there.
"When my kids were little, it was Dr. Seuss' book of the month. Some of the best times I remember are sitting in an old platform rocker with my two kids in my lap and reading to them. We don't do that enough.
"My mom was determined I would go to college, but we didn't have the money. The dean of women at DuPont High, Violet Kimball, put together a financial aid package for me to go to Morris Harvey College.
In my third year, I decided teaching wasn't for me, but I was close to a history degree, so I got my undergraduate degree in history.
"A young man I graduated from high school with, his sister worked in employment security and knew the personnel officer of the library commission. I had gotten married in September of '68 and was looking for a part-time job, because I was only two years into my degree.
"I got a job with the library commission as a mail runner. I worked from 1 to 5. I drove an old green Ford Econoline. At that time, the library commission was in two buildings in Kanawha City and two here at the Capitol. I moved the mail around.
"When I graduated from Morris Harvey in '71, I was totally unemployable. What are you going to do with a history degree? There was an opening here in the reference library. I figured I would stay a couple of years and figure out what I was going to do. Forty-three years later, here I am.
"I was in reference almost 12 years. I was a library assistant, then I moved to a supervisor position.
"We used to run a regional library that worked with nine of the most rural counties. We did a lot of inter-library loans for them and would buy books for them to help them develop libraries.
"Dora Ruth Parks was secretary of the library commission when I started work. Most people remember Fred Glazer as secretary. He was here 24 years. I only worked directly for Fred for about a year before his term ended. (Glazer was fired in 1996).
"Mr. Glazer pretty much doubled the number of libraries in the state. The carousel-shaped library buildings you see in lots of communities around the state, that was his baby.
"We had been running two 18-wheeler bookmobiles into the southern coalfields. You can't really serve people that way. The vision was to put in a fixed facility. The thought was to make a footprint in the community so they start to understand what a library can really mean, and then expand.
"West Virginia's libraries are horribly funded, 49th in the nation. Thank God for Mississippi. When revenue sharing was taken away, lots of these small communities didn't have discretionary funds to put into the library.
"County commissions are always complaining about paying for regional jails. If we had put more money into our libraries, we might not need so many regional jails. Of those incarcerated, the number of functionally illiterate is extremely high. So let's push literacy.
"You can't get your master's in library science in West Virginia. In 1992, the University of South Carolina offered a satellite education program. I had gone as far as I could without that master's in library science, so I enrolled in the program. I went on a two-year suicide track. Any class they offered, I took.
"When the director of field services was looking for an assistant, it gave me an opportunity to move into administration and work with all the libraries across the state. I have to give Shirley Smith a lot of credit for me ending up in this chair. When she retired, I took over her position.
"After the removal of Glazer, things went south for a while. He had respect nationally and internationally, and there had been a lot of national press about the firing. That made it difficult for us to find someone to replace him.
"We hired someone who lasted four years. After he left, I submitted my résumé for the position. All the libraries knew me by then. I became interim secretary in 2001 and was appointed secretary in 2002.
"The Internet has greatly expanded what libraries do. Over half our citizens don't have a computer, and those who do can't afford to be connected to the Internet. But those people can go to the library. We need to support libraries and give them an opportunity to provide those services.
"Now, instead of building small libraries like we used to, we have to build them bigger. Used to be, all you needed was a wingback chair, some natural lighting and a book. Now you need a disk and a CPU and a printer.
"I didn't start out in libraries, but I will always love them. It's amazing to me what they mean to these communities.
"My last day is Thursday. In two weeks, I will probably be sitting on the back steps talking to the dog. We have small camp at Siebert in Pocahontas County, and I would like to spend more time there.
"Also, I'm a frustrated guitar player. I inherited two things from my father -- a shotgun and a Martin guitar. There was a library commission band here for a while. I was the boss, so they had to let me play. The guitar is a great escape. When frustrations put you up the wall, you can take your guitar out to the porch swing and pretty much shut down anything else.
"I will be 63 in June. I'm a little antsy about this retirement thing. This has been my life for 43 years. But somehow or other, I got old. I had a bout with cancer five years ago, then some heart issues. I've loved this, but I'm going to have to leave it to the young guys.
"I would still be running fire calls in Malden if I hadn't had the health issues. I almost ended up on the Charleston Fire Department. I had passed everything. Then Glazer asked what it would take to get me to stay.
"Now, I'd like to get more involved in community things. Maybe Habitat for Humanity. But I'm going to have to get in shape if I want to swing a hammer."
Reach Sandy Wells at san...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5173.
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