Friends Of Wood Memorial Library And Museum Musings From Main - May 19, 2023

Marvelous Men Exhibit

Bob Raymond/Barney Daley/Henry Cote

We want to wish Bob Raymond a Happy 90th Birthday and to help with the celebrations we have a new online exhibit Marvelous Men of Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum. For this Musings from Main we have highlighted three of the men featured in the exhibit, Robert (Bob) Raymond, Barney Daley and Henry Cote.  Explore the exhibit online to learn more details about these Marvelous Men as well as all of the others who have contributed to the success of the Friends!

Robert (Bob) Raymond

Robert “Bob” Raymond grew up on Main Street, and as a student at Union School visited Wood Memorial Library built for the town by his great uncle, Will Wood. In his oral history, available at Wood, Bob tells of his fond memories of adventures living and biking on Main Street. He is grateful for the contributions his extended family have made to the Wood and the South Windsor Community. 

As an adult, Bob became involved in the Wood Memorial Library Association and Trust, owner of the building and responsible for its maintenance. For almost fifty years he has been the quiet, behind the scenes representative of the Association, working with the Friends since 1971 to oversee the Wood Memorial Library building and grounds, while also monitoring the Trust Fund established to support the building.

Bob has also contributed generously, both through the Trust and personally, to the building expansions and to help support the Friends when they took over the operations of the library. In his role in the Wood Association, he was instrumental in two major additions to the Wood building, the mezzanine extension (1976) providing more shelving for books and the elevator addition (2007) making the Wood ADA accessible.

The volunteers and staff at Wood have appreciated Bob’s soft-spoken, sincere words of gratitude and appreciation for all that the Friends of Wood Memorial Library & Museum have made possible, making it a popular destination and a much-loved community asset. 

The Friends are very grateful for Bob’s dedication and generosity in seeing that the Wood Memorial Library has kept its stately, well-cared for stature in the neighborhood and the South Windsor Community. 

Learn more about Bob Raymond by exploring the Marvelous Men online exhibit.
 
(To enlarge the online exhibit click the arrows icon, to jump to a specific person click on their name.)

Barney Daley

Barney Daley had a great interest in investigating and learning about the past. He loved sharing his memories, artifact finds and latest discoveries. Barney found he and the Friends had common goals, thus he and his wife, Gladys, were frequent visitors and volunteers.

His expertise, experience and background knowledge made Barney a go-to resource for identifying artifacts and their use and answering local research questions. Barney wrote three books to preserve local history for future generations with facts, observations and humor: “Five Thousand Years at Podunk”, “God’s Acre”, and “Tobacco Parish”, all of which are available to explore in our reference and research library.

Barney donated his collection of Native American artifacts to the Friends with two beautiful display cases. The University of Connecticut and the State Archeology Office have shown great interest in the collection and UCONN has provided an intern to the Friends to work on the collection in preparation for an exhibit, South Windsor Unearthed: Rarely Seen Indigenous Artifacts, opening June 10, 2023 in celebration of the 3rd Annual Artifact ID Day in Nowashe Village.

In 1992 Barney was made an Honorary Friends Board Member in appreciation for all he had contributed to helping the Friends preserve and share local history. In his later years Barney and Gladys could often be found at Wood visiting with the staff, desk volunteers and patrons sharing his newest observations and information. Barney passed away in 2008 and a memorial service was held at Wood. His legacy is still helping the Friends share our rich past with future generations. 

Henry Cote

Henry Cote first spotted Wood Memorial Library in 1968 while driving to his new place of employment at UTC in South Windsor. He couldn’t help but notice the striking beauty of the building and its architectural rarity in what was then a mostly rural farming suburb of Hartford. Having patronized programming at the library, it wasn’t until his retirement in 2004 that Henry jumped into the real work of sustaining the Friends. Henry’s dedication as a true leader, serving as President, Vice-President, Secretary and on almost every other Committee at the Wood, has been a basis of the Friends’ success and growth over his 19 years of service.

His calm and thoughtful approach to challenges that arise, always garner the Boards’ attention when he voices his opinion. He has played a key role in fundraising, and in events such as the Annual Golf Tournament, this year being held June 15, 2023.

Henry’s entire engineering career was with the UTC’s Fuel Cell Operations in South Windsor. Best known for providing the electrical power on each of the Apollo missions. Henry has donated his entire collection of artifacts, memorabilia, and public records, documenting the history of fuel cell technology, to the Friends’ Archives.

Discover the work of countless local South Windsor engineers, including Henry, by exploring our current exhibit South Windsor's Contributions to Space  on display at Wood Memorial Library & Museum until June 1, 2023.