When Carol Vaughan Kissane earned the second-most votes out of nine candidates for the then-Brookfield Public Library Board of Trustees in 1981, she said the possibility her tenure could last 44 years did “not even remotely” cross her mind.
That tenure will come to a close at the Linda Sokol Francis Brookfield Library’s May 28 board meeting. Kissane, who did not seek reelection, will leave her seat after four new trustees are sworn in at the Brookfield village board’s May 12 meeting. Those elected defeated four other candidates in last month’s consolidated election.
This wasn’t the first time Kissane considered leaving her post.
“Every time, I said I wasn’t running,” she told the Landmark Tuesday, May 6, about seeking reelection after each of her previous terms. “One time, it was because we were looking for a director. Then, one time, we were refurbishing the building. It seemed like, every time, something was coming up, and then, of course, with the new building, I wasn’t going to turn my baby over to someone new. I had to stay to see it through.”
Kissane said she finally cut the cord to care for her husband, who has fallen ill and is staying at Adventist LaGrange Memorial Hospital.
She said some of the biggest changes she saw to the library during her tenure were due to the advances in technology.
“When I got on the library board, we had one window air conditioner and one electric typewriter. When we built the new building, it was before the age of computers, so then, we had to adapt,” she said. “It was an awakening for the people in Brookfield to have all this access to computers and Wi-Fi and movies and tapes.”
Having been a dedicated civil servant — Kissane said she only missed four board meetings across four decades — she said she would miss the library’s community events.
“The only thing I’m going to miss is not being in the parade. I love being in the Fourth of July parade, throwing stuff,” she said. “That was a highlight, being there. People would wave at me, and I’d say, ‘I’m still alive!’”
She said she was proud to have been the person behind the idea for the Taste of Brookfield fundraiser, which the library ran each year from 2006-2017.
Toni Hergenrother, the library’s head of technical services, who has worked at the library since 1986, called Kissane a force to be reckoned with on the board.
“I always thought she was pushy, but things got done that way. Carol Hall was also on the board, and the two of them together did lots of great things,” she said.
Hergenrother said she thought the end of Kissane’s tenure on the board would be a loss for the library.
“She had a voice, and she used it and got things done,” she said.
“Are you trying to say I’m a big mouth?” Kissane joked.
“No, I said you have a voice, and you used your voice to get things done, and that’s how it should be. You said a lot of these new board members are young people, and we have to get to know them in order to say, ‘OK, they’re going to work,’” Hergenrother said.
As a former president, vice president and secretary of the Illinois Library Association, Kissane said she had enjoyed being part of the statewide library community.
“We would meet at different libraries,” she said. “I liked meeting other people from other libraries and listening to their woes and then being very jealous of how much money they have, how they’re building an addition.”
Kissane said she had briefly met the incoming trustees at library board meetings but hadn’t gotten to know them due to the meetings’ structure, with a long executive session out of the public’s view taking place after regular business but before adjournment. She said she had a few choice words of advice for them.
“Attend the board meetings, read your emails and be careful what you say to reporters,” she said.
Despite her tenure ending, Kissane said she still finds the library to be an important fixture in town.
“I think our library is the heart of Brookfield,” she said. “You can walk here, and there’s just so much to do in this library. It’s endless, [the] avenues that you could have. You could take computers home. There are so many programs that you can attend for kids and adults. Our meeting rooms … and our study rooms are booked solid all the time. Teachers come and help students catch up, especially in the summer. Our community is very blessed, having all these avenues of help and education.”
