Meet Member Philip Gerrard
Anyone who has ever visited New York or lived there probably has a warm feeling about the City’s public libraries. Philip Gerrard, a new Ashby Village member, spent his entire career working in the Big Apple’s library system. But the California-raised librarian always knew he’d come back to his roots in the Bay Area. “I always thought I would move back when I retired. I was perfectly comfortable in New York. I enjoyed myself, had friends, did things. But I never felt like a New Yorker,” he says.
The Early Years
Born in Seattle, Phil moved around a lot as a kid. His mother moved him and his sister Alice to Mexico after his father died when Phil was seven years old. After a year, they moved to Oakland, then to a farm in Fremont. “Alice and I liked it a lot. It was all agricultural back then. Some neighbors, with whom Alice and I became close, were ranchers, and taught Alice and me to ride. Alice loved to ride those horses—I was younger and a bit reluctant.” When Phil was 12, the family, including his stepfather and a new baby, moved to Oakland. He went to Oakland Tech, then to UC Riverside.
“I had always wanted to go to a small college, and I’d been accepted to Reed College, in Portland, but it was too expensive, and state colleges were free. UC Riverside was small and brand new.” In 1956, after three years of college, he took a year off, then finished at UC Berkeley. “I had been an English major. I had no clue about what I wanted to do next.” A chance meeting with a law librarian at a UC Berkeley pool resulted in Phil getting a master’s degree in library science from UC. “I liked to read, and public librarianship, which quickly became my focus, didn’t’t require concentration in any one subject. It seemed perfect.”
In those days, Phil says there were lots of jobs, and libraries were recruiting. The New York City library system came calling. He and six of his close library school friends were all offered and accepted jobs in New York. He was the only one who stayed for his entire 31-year career.
Plum Jobs at the Library
“My intention was to go for a couple of years, see the big city and then come back. But it never seemed like the right time.” One thing after another interfered with that plan. He met someone and they moved in together. He started working in the Bronx, and every couple of years, he got promoted to interesting jobs in the Bronx, which he loved. “For a while, every time I got promoted, I moved,” he says with a laugh. All the moves were in Manhattan. Then an extraordinary opportunity opened. He became the head librarian at the Jefferson Market Library in the West Village. It was the busiest branch in the system, in what he calls a “magnificent building.” Originally a courthouse, it is a Victorian gothic structure with a high clock tower, stained glass windows, and a peaked roof. The community had been responsible for convincing the city to take it over and make it a library. He was there for nine years, and his last plum job was Chief of the Donnell Library Center in midtown Manhattan, where he was able to have more contact with the public than in other administrative positions.
He had just applied for yet another promotion when, at age 52, he got the shocking news that he was HIV positive. “In those days, it was pretty much a death sentence. I decided if I wasn’t going to live much longer, I would retire. However, if I lived, I needed the pension, so I needed to work another 2 1/2 years until I was 55.” But that was not quite it. He was asked to come back from retirement to take over as head of the new Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped while they did a search for a new Coordinator. He worked for five months before retiring for good.
Coming Home to Roots
He moved west in 1992 and that began his new life in California. He volunteered at the ACT library in San Francisco. After two years of commuting from Oakland to the city, he checked out volunteer opportunities in Oakland. Soon, he was working as an assistant to the HIV services coordinator at the Pacific Center, an organization providing services to the LGBTQ+ community in the East Bay. The HIV services coordinator also was in charge of HIV test counseling at the Berkeley Free Clinic. When it became clear that the Pacific Center was in danger of being unable to pay its staff and its bills, he and a group of volunteers stepped in to rescue it. Phil assumed responsibility for fundraising.
Then came another pivot; he became an HIV test counselor at the Berkeley Free Clinic. “I loved it. Back then, people concerned that they might have been infected came in to be tested, and came back a week later for their results. It was rewarding to help them through the process, and sometimes very moving—and challenging—when we needed to counsel someone whose result was positive.”
For the past seven years, he’s been editing oral histories of retirees from the New York Public library. The goal is to finish in three years. He’ll be 90 before then.
The Ashby Village Chapter
Phil is almost 88 and if you think he joined Ashby Village because he now needs help, guess again. “I’m pretty old but still very active. I can still do what I did when I was 50.” Some years ago, a friend told him about Ashby Village and sent him a newspaper article about it. “I can’t afford to go into a retirement home. I didn’t do anything about exploring Ashby Village for years, and finally decided that if I could join while I was still competent, I could volunteer, and earn the right for services.”
Of course, he knows he doesn’t have to
earn the services, but he is becoming a volunteer anyway. He has gone to a few Village events (see coda below), but at the moment, he isn’t particularly looking for social connections. With an active social life, and attendance at plays, concerts, and the ballet, as well as working at his piano nearly every day, he’s busy and he knows it’s easy to feel like he’s “crowded.”
“I felt joining Ashby Village would be a good idea – get to know people, see what would be available if I ever need it. I cannot go on forever being wholly independent.“
Coda: How we connected with Phil and a surprise connection...
At a recent first-Friday monthly Ashby Village Social Hour, AV members Robin and Greg Finnegan sat at a table with Phil. Someone asked him if he had any siblings, and he talked about his sister, who will soon turn 90 and is a folk singer. “I turned to Phil, quite astonished, and asked him if his sister was Alice Gerrard?!” says Robin. “His answer was, of course, ‘yes’, and he asked if we knew her music.” Before they moved to Oakland, Robin and Greg gave away their stereo equipment plus other LPs that included a number of albums of Alice’s music with Hazel Dickens. They are now happily listening to them on Apple Music!
And an added bonus for AV members and volunteers: be sure to check out the Music section of the Upcoming Events Sunday email on March 3 for a track from Alice Gerrard.