OBITUARY

Len Kirsch, library founder, dies at 88

Len Kirsch was PR professional, WWII vet

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Longtime Merrick resident Len Kirsch, whose intellectual curiosity, public messaging savvy and can-do attitude made him the ideal person to head the citizens’ committee that advocated for the North Merrick Public Library’s founding in the mid-1960s, died last month after a lengthy illness. He was 88.

Spearheading the public campaign to create the library was “one of the happiest times in my husband’s life,” said his widow, Ruth, in a family statement. Their daughter, Annie, said her father enjoyed the local advocacy alongside fellow residents Judy Butt, Joe Ognibene and Art Sloggatt, though he would joke later that it was his wife who “volunteered” him for the project.

The Kirsches moved from West Hempstead to North Merrick in 1963, Annie said. Len was then communications director for Waldes Kohinoor Inc., a Long Island City manufacturer of zippers and other metal devices. North Merrick was one of the area’s few school districts without a community library. Two campaigns to found a library in the 1950s had failed at the ballot box.

Annie recalled going door to door as a young girl with her father to encourage neighbors to support a library. She gave out stickers endorsing a third ballot proposal. On Nov. 21, 1964, the proposal passed by a margin of nearly 3 to 1. The next year the North Merrick Public Library opened its doors, and it remains a feature of the community today.

“He never sought accolades, but he accomplished a lot,” Annie said of her father. “He just knew how to get things done. And if he didn’t know, he’d figure it out. I’d say that was his greatest strength … My parents were avid readers. They felt a library was important to the intellectual life of the community.”

Len moved into public relations after a short stint as a writer for a general-interest magazine, Annie said. A World War II veteran, he earned a degree in journalism from New York University on the G.I. Bill. Decades later, he would manage a friend’s campaign for a State Assembly seat and found his own firm, Kirsch Communications.

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