Charleston Library Society resolution honoring Miss Ellen M. FitzSimons on retirement, 1948
Book 1, Page 501 ·1948
Transcription
WHEREAS Miss Ellen M. Fitz Simons has served the Charleston Library Society as Librarian with untiring zeal and devotion for the past fifty years, oblivious to her personal interests and making them at all times subservient to her work for the Library, consecrating her time, her energies and her profound knowledge to the single purpose of promoting the best interests of the Library; Now therefore, be it
RESOLVED that the Board of Trustees of the Charleston Library Society does hereby express and place on record on behalf of the Society its recognition of the high character and priceless value of the half century of service rendered by Miss Fitz Simons as Librarian, as well as its deep appreciation of the benefits which have accrued to the Library and to all who have used it as a result of her devotion.
RESOLVED, FURTHER, that in recognition of a career of service so unusual in length of time, so distinguished in character and so far-reaching in value and benefit to this institution, Miss Fitz Simons be retired from active service as of October 1st, 1948 with full pay at the present rate, and that there be conferred upon her the title of Honorary Librarian of the Charleston Library Society.
RESOLVED, FURTHER, that as a slight token of appreciation, the Board of Trustees do present to her a suitable silver testimonial.
AI Notes
A typed (typewriter) resolution on a single sheet, framed as a series of three ‘RESOLVED’ clauses, recognizing fifty years of service by Miss Ellen M. Fitz Simons as Librarian of the Charleston Library Society, and providing for her retirement at full pay effective October 1, 1948, the title of Honorary Librarian, and a silver testimonial. The page is a duplicate or carbon presentation copy and shows fold-creases. Spelling is as typed — ‘Fitz Simons’ is two words throughout. Ellen M. (Milliken) FitzSimons is the compiler’s paternal aunt — sixth child of Dr. Christopher FitzSimons (3rd) + Susan Milliken Barker, sister of the compiler’s father Samuel Gaillard FitzSimons Sr.; she figures throughout the album as ‘Aunt Ellen’ and was the Charleston repository of the family’s Irish-FitzSimons tradition. Her tenure as Librarian (50 years to October 1, 1948) places her appointment in 1898; in 1935 she was also offered an honorary Doctor of Laws by the College of Charleston (see book-001/p529).
The Charleston Library Society, founded 1748, is the third-oldest subscription library in the United States (after Philadelphia’s Library Company and Newport’s Redwood Library) and the oldest cultural institution in the South. Miss FitzSimons’s fifty-year tenure as Librarian (1898–1948) spanned almost a fifth of the Society’s history; her honorary L.L.D. from the College of Charleston in 1935 (book-001/p523, p529) recognized the same body of work.