Trustees and Staff

Meet Our Board

  •  Marion Bok        

  • Natalie Kinsey

  • Valerie Morrison 

  • Linda Ramsdell

  • John Rowell 

  • Margaret Rowell 

  • Mary Lou Rylands-Isaacson

  • Bruce Shields  

  • Saul Trevino

  • Thomas Twetten

  • Tom Warnock

  • Mary White

  • Robin Wright    

Marion Bok, Chair

Marion Bok believes that literacy is a right for all people and has devoted the last 20 years to ensuring that children learn to read. She is currently a special education teacher at Coventry Village School. Prior to moving to Craftsbury, she was an English Language Arts teacher and Orton Gillingham language practitioner at the Carroll School in Massachusetts, a school for children with language-based learning disabilities such as dyslexia. Prior to entering the educational field, she worked as an attorney for several Boston-area law firms. She lives in Miss Mary Jean Simpson’s house in East Craftsbury with her husband, Geoffrey. Her sons visited the Simpson Library (and its ping pong table) regularly when they spent holidays with their grandmother.

Bruce Shields

Bruce Shields retired a few years ago after careers as a sawmill operator, timber industry lobbyist, farm store owner, and teaching Medieval English at university. He joined the library board about 25 years ago following his wife’s 20-year stint and has helped keep the investment policy on a stable course.

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Saul Trevino

Saul is a retired orthopedic surgeon who has always had a great love of learning and reading. He usually has several books on various topics going at the same time. As a former board member of the Craftsbury Public Library, he has learned a lot about what it takes to make a great library work. In his retirement, he has become a certified yoga instructor and Master Gardener. He is looking forward to applying his gardening knowledge and talents to enhance the landscaping around the library. He is excited to see how the Simpson Library is already re-emerging as a crucial part of the community.

 

Mary Lou Rylands-Isaacson

Mary Lou Rylands-Isaacson is a retired musician, cellist, performer and teacher.  She has a long history with Craftsbury which began the summer of 1966. Her interests in education, children and music have been lifelong pursuits and continue to this day.  She has served on the School Board and taken a strong interest in the Craftsbury pre-kindergarten program.

John Rowell

A Craftsbury native, John grew up on Brassknocker Farm, adjacent to the Simpson Library, and spent many hours in the library reading, playing games, doing arts and crafts and eating the endless supply of Girl Scout Cookies that Miss Jean always had on hand. He resides in New York City and maintains a seasonal home just three houses away from the library. He has served on the Board since 2016. John is very excited to contribute to the Board’s efforts to preserve this amazing institution and to continuously rethink how it can best serve area communities today and in the years ahead.

Robin Wright, Secretary

Robin joined the Board of Trustees in the fall of 2020.  She is a part-time elementary school librarian and retired school nurse.  She and her husband, Gary, a Craftsbury native, have purchased property in Craftsbury and are working on getting their new home ready for the summer of 2022 when she fully retires.  She says, “ I am looking forward to continuing to have libraries as a part of my life.  I have enjoyed working in the school library system, the public library system is new to me. Working as a Trustee is a great way to learn about public libraries and to also volunteer in a library.”

 
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Margaret Rowell

Margaret grew up in East Craftsbury where she and her siblings enjoyed a very special relationship with “Nana Jean”. She fondly remembers tagging along with Nana Jean when she would go to pick up the girl scouts and enjoyed seeing the girls in their uniforms, anxious to become old enough to be a girl scout herself. The library was a second home especially Saturday afternoons. She also has fond memories of librarian Arline Daniels or “Auntie Arline” and wonders how she tolerated having a bunch of young children under foot, looking at all the children’s books on the floor behind the librarian’s desk! Arline had amazing patience and was always willing to stop what she was doing to play a bit of ping pong or to read a story. There was a well-stocked tin of Girl Scout cookies on the shelf for hungry library patrons.

Margaret moved back to Craftsbury in 2012 and has just finished out her career as an orthopaedic nurse. She is looking forward to seeing the library grow in a way that “Nana Jean” would be proud.

Natalie Kinsey

Natalie has been a patron of the Simpson Library all her life, from a family where five generations have been patrons. Natalie joined the Board in 2021, and has been spearheading the library archive project.
Natalie is a passionate historian, educator and author of children’s books. Natalie's children's books are based on family stories and local history, and she works in schools teaching students how to do historical research based on their family stories.

Mary White

Mary is a retired professor of medical humanities, a summer resident in Greensboro since she was five, and a voracious reader who weekly consumed dozens of books from this library from the moment she learned to read. She says, “I remember Miss Jean as a astute observer who was always ready to share the next good book; a convincing fencer when she played Hamlet, parading in her chariot on Old Home Days, her love of dogs, ice cream, Sunday dinners, and good conversation. As a trustee, I appreciate all the more what Miss Jean gave the Craftsbury-Greensboro communities through the library, her activities, and her leadership over her lifetime here. In this centenary year for the library, I’m grateful for the opportunity to strengthen it as a community resource for decades to come.”

Our Staff

 
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Kristin Urie, Librarian

Kristin has been a librarian since 2017, and started at the Simpson Library in 2021. She lives with her family on a farm a few miles from the library. Her husband grew up playing ping-pong at the library on Sundays, and her four children have been patrons at the Simpson Library since they were small. She is passionate about community and collaboration.