47.0°,
Fair Babette Gurwitz, 89
Woodmere resident worked at HWPL for 45 years
Babette Gurwitz worked behind the scenes but that didn’t diminish the impact she had in her 45 years working at the Hewlett-Woodmere Public Library.
The Woodmere resident died on Feb. 6. She was 89.
Gurwitz began her career as a clerk at the library on Broadway in Hewlett in 1963. She obtained a master of library science degree a few years later. At the library she was promoted quickly to a succession of positions, including librarian and head of Automated Services. In her jobs, Gurwitz took on many responsibilities and filled several roles.
In 1986, she served as the acting library director, then as assistant director to the newly hired Director, Susan de Sciora, who retired last year.
When the building was undergoing a renovation in the mid-1990s, Gurwitz played an integral role as liaison between the library and the community. She retired in 2008.
Benjamin Eilbott, the library’s current board president, said that as de Sciora’s right-hand person it was Gurwitz’s “good counsel, tireless work, sound thinking and ideas and inspiration that helped to make the library the jewel it has become.”
Predeceased by her husband, George, in 1993, Gurwitz is survived by her children, Alan and Stephen Gurwitz and their wives, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Brett, Eric, Jaclyn, Eli, Eileen and Andrew.
