For area librarian, retirement long overdue
MARS — Longtime Mars Public Library employee Gretchen Kornick, 82, decided she was overdue for some “me time.”
After 14 years of serving Mars library patrons, Kornick checked out Dec. 29.
It was the second retirement for Kornick who retired as a licensed practical nurse and dialysis technician at Allegheny General Hospital in 1996.
Kornick said she started at the library at 107 Grand Ave. in 2003.
“The first two years I was employed by Career Track out of Butler and worked here at the library,” said Kornick of Mars.
“The director (Sally Sturn) hired me then and I worked 12 years,” she said.
“I was staff. I did everything but cataloging books. I shelved books, I checked books in and out and I helped patrons,” said Kornick.
“I filled in when somebody was on vacation or needed time off,” she added.
But finally, she said, “I just figured it was time. I was 82. I wanted to stay at home for a while and do some of the things I wanted to do, be with my family a little more.”
Kornick has three children, six grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.
She'll be missed by her co-workers at the library, said Caitlyn Boland, the library's director.
“I just took this position at the beginning of November, so I have only known her that long, but she's been wonderful,” said Boland.
“Patrons have been stopping in for quite some time asking when Gretchen was going to leave,” said Boland. “She really interacted with people and was able to build relationships with community members.”
Fellow library employee Charlene McMahon said, “I pretty much worked with her the whole time I've been here (six years.) She was just very helpful. She's a person who's always there.”
Library employee Jennifer Ford said, “She was just a very nice person who read a lot. She was good to go to for advice on reading.
“I think she read every book in the library,” she said.
Well, as long as it wasn't too gory, Kornick said.
“I like women writers. I like to read, not romances, but just general stories that don't have murder and gore,” she said.
She noted there have been many changes to the library during her tenure.
“We have a new children's section and a new community room that was a warehouse at one time. We have expanded a bit,” said Kornick.
When asked if she will be returning to the library as a patron rather than an employee, she said, “Oh absolutely. I can't do without my books.”
“It will be weird, definitely, to be on the other side of the desk, so to speak,” she said.
Looking back on her second career, Kornick said, “I liked the patrons. I watched all the little kids grow up from babes in car seats to a lot of them that are in high school right now. I got to know a lot of them from the summer reading program,” she said.
She may run into program alumni the next time she visits the library for a new stack of books, but for now she's planning travel in her immediate future.
“I've always traveled. I will continue to do that as much as I can, but I don't go anywhere in the wintertime,” she said.
