Susan Gulick, who guided Morristown library through explosive times, has died

susan gulick
Susan Gulick has had en explosive tenure as director of the Morristown & Township Library. The place blew up as she took the helm in 1994, and it erupted again this month, as she is preparing to retire. She figures a third time would not be a charm. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
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Susan Gulick, former director of the Morristown & Township Library, pictured in 2010. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Susan Gulick, former director of the Morristown & Township Library, has passed away. She is pictured here in 2010. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

By Kevin Coughlin

Susan Honeywell Gulick, a quiet leader fated to have an explosive tenure as director of the Morristown & Township Library, passed away early on Friday.

She died at Morristown Medical Center, where friends said she was being treated for a heart condition.

Colleagues nicknamed her “Boom Boom Gulick” after two harrowing events tested her mettle.

She retired in June 2010 just weeks after an explosion damaged the library so severely that portions of it remained closed for two years.

It was a deja vu experience. Days after Gulick became director in 1994, a blast rocked the Morristown building and shut it down for six weeks.

Authorities never disclosed the cause of either explosion. In both instances, Gulick was called upon to keep library operations running in the aftermath, from makeshift headquarters in churches and storefronts.

After the first explosion, she pursued grant money to buy special shelving and sprinklers designed to minimize damage to collections. Those precautions paid dividends during the 2010 blast.

“She’s a terrific director and has done a tremendous job with the library,” library board President Nancy Bangiola said at the time of Gulick’s retirement.

Chad Leinaweaver, who was named library director earlier this month, described Gulick as a mentor and role model. He remembers meeting her when he moved to New Jersey about 15 years ago, at a meeting in the Morristown library.

“We connected immediately, and I thought to myself, ‘It would be great to work at that Morristown & Morris Township Library someday.’

“She was such a kind person and we really connected with our interest in history and archives… She had a great manner in connecting people outside of the Library with the staff here that I can only hope to emulate that in the years going forward,” Leinaweaver said.

Susan Gulick, right, at 2012 tribute to Steve Wiley, with Library Board President Nancy Bangiola, left, and then-Library Director Maria Norton. Photo by Kevin Coughlin
Susan Gulick, right, at 2012 tribute to Steve Wiley, with Library Board President Nancy Bangiola, left, and then-Library Director Maria Norton. Photo by Kevin Coughlin

Maria Norton spent nearly 50 years working for the library, retiring as director last fall. She admired Gulick’s grace under pressure.

“She was very encouraging to people who worked with her. She was a great multi-tasker, [and] a visionary who could see big ideas and big plans,” Norton said, referring to a library expansion in 2006. “She encouraged you to dream big.”

Gulick also was an early adopter of technology, who introduced staff to a newfangled thing called the World Wide Web.

“She had stuff before anyone else did,” Norton said. “We were like, ‘Superhighway?’ What?”

Gulick joined the library’s history department in 1985, after working at the Morris Plains Library.  She earned a master’s degree in library science at Rutgers.

On her watch as director, $8.2 million was raised to build the new wing at the Morristown & Township Library. Two years later, in 2008, the New Jersey Library Association recognized Susan’s efforts with its Susan G. Swartzburg Preservation Award.

“She was a wonderful librarian, so dedicated, a really wonderful person,” said Madison Library Director Nancy Adamczyk.  “She ran a very good library. We’ll miss her.”

Former Morristown Library Director Susan Gulick, left, with Judy Geller of Morristown, and Molly Dunn, development director of the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, at 2012 tribute to library champion Steve Wiley. Photo by Kevin Coughlin for MorristownGreen.com
Former Morristown Library Director Susan Gulick, left, with Judy Geller of Morristown, and Molly Dunn, development director of the Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, at 2012 tribute to library champion Steve Wiley. Photo by Kevin Coughlin for MorristownGreen.com

Gulick disliked interviews, preferring to give others the spotlight. Yet beneath her quiet demeanor lurked a wry sense of humor that surprised and delighted the unsuspecting.

“You could always tell when she was joking,” Norton said. “There was a twinkle in her eye.”

When MorristownGreen.com was in its infancy in 2008, we approached the library about making a short film with the staff, and premiering it there with the full red carpet treatment, to promote our first MG Film Festival.

Norton ran it by Gulick, whose initial response was predictable: “You want to do what?

But Gulick also was a can-do sort, and a good sport. As with so many other new ideas, her decision was an unequivocal “let’s do it, let’s do it,” Norton recounted.

And inevitably, Norton said, Gulick would offer the same observation afterward.

“I told you it would work out just fine.”

Gulick is survived by three children and several grandchildren. Check back here for an update about funeral services.

 

 

 

 

2 COMMENTS

  1. I recall many years of working with Susan on library matters throughout Morris County. She never failed to work at making libraries bigger and better and striving always, to serve the public as well as possible. She leaves a wonderful librarian legacy and will be warmly remembered.

  2. So sorry to read about the passing of Sue. I remember her from Morris Plains…I worked with ner daughter at the Dain Shoppe in Morristown.
    My sympathy to the family.
    Bernice bateman werner

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