Library Director Says Goodbye to Bayport-Blue Point

At the end of the year, John D. O'Hare, library director at the will retire after 23 years, 17 of which he served as director. Prior to working at the library, the Wading River resident worked as a high school English teacher, then as a reference librarian.

O'Hare, 61, decided to retire this year when the NYS Retirement System offered an incentive, which hadn't been offered in more than a decade. "So that was an attractive situation for me to do, that they were giving me more years of service credit.  I ended up with a total of 42-and-a-half years of service," he said.

He has now decided to embark on yet another exciting chapter in the book of his life: Culinary school. The youthful retiree will be attending Suffolk Community College in Riverhead, where there is a new state of the art culinary program.

O'Hare, who has always found comfort in the kitchen said, "When I was growing up boys didn't go into stuff like that. Now, it's all changed. In fact, most of the chefs in restaurants today are men."

Since, he doesn't really have to work anymore he is considering doing some volunteering such as cooking for a soup kitchen. While not entirely sure where his new path will take him, he is looking forward to the journey. "When I walked in the door [to culinary school] this guy who's about my age said, 'You're going to have so much fun here,' and I said, 'I intend to,'" said O'Hare.

It has been very difficult for O'Hare to say goodbye to his work at the library, which he said has been so rewarding, and he acknowledges that there is still so much work to be done.

"I think the library right now is in need of a renovation. Certain things need to be done; that was on the edge of my plate before this came down," O'Hare said.  At the forefront of such improvements are painting the entire building inside and out and adding some space to create a much better children's room and young adult room in which to meet the growing needs of the community.

"We're more service-oriented than ever. It's very active in terms of offering programs to the people," said O'Hare.

These goals will not be abandoned, but will be passed on to the next library director.  O'Hare confirmed that several candidates have been interviewed for the position, and a final decision should be made within the next couple of days.

O'Hare listed what he feels are the most important qualities for a library director to possess. These include: "Patience, understanding and a good sense of humor."

While he found his years at the library to be "intellectually stimulating," he is glad to now be able to do more traveling, and is planning to take the opportunity to go to Florence, Italy for five weeks over the summer to learn the art of Italian cuisine firsthand.

He said wistfully, "It's been a rollercoaster since I decided to [retire] back in July.  It's been an emotional thing almost every day for me.  It's not an easy thing to do."