Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame member Charles Bunge made an excellent presentation about the creation of Wisconsin’s public library systems law on February 8. In the open discussion period following his presentation Bunge recounted meeting S. Jan Kee, another Library Hall of Fame member in the late 1960s. Kee had served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission from 1956 to 1965, an important period leading up to the public library systems law. Bunge was heavily involved in the actual development of the legislation which was signed into law in 1971. In talking at their chance meeting, Bunge and Kee discovered that they had a remarkable connection. While working on the bookmobile in a State Library of Missouri library demonstration project in the 1940s Kee had provided a young boy in Gasconade County, MO a copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. That boy was Charles Bunge. The audience expressed a desire for Bunge to share this amazing story more widely. He has graciously written up a fuller account of their meeting and it is now located on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center website. Bunge Remembers Kee
Wisconsin Library Hall of Fame member Charles Bunge made an excellent presentation about the creation of Wisconsin’s public library systems law on February 8. In the open discussion period following his presentation Bunge recounted meeting S. Jan Kee, another Library Hall of Fame member in the late 1960s. Kee had served as Secretary of the Wisconsin Free Library Commission from 1956 to 1965, an important period leading up to the public library systems law. Bunge was heavily involved in the actual development of the legislation which was signed into law in 1971. In talking at their chance meeting, Bunge and Kee discovered that they had a remarkable connection. While working on the bookmobile in a State Library of Missouri library demonstration project in the 1940s Kee had provided a young boy in Gasconade County, MO a copy of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. That boy was Charles Bunge. The audience expressed a desire for Bunge to share this amazing story more widely. He has graciously written up a fuller account of their meeting and it is now located on the Wisconsin Library Heritage Center website.