Paula Polk, 59; director expanded role of the library in Natick

PAULA POLK

The libraries of Paula Polk's youth were places of books and quiet contemplation.

There were plenty of shelves and shushing in the libraries she directed as an adult, but she made sure there was much more. From the Internet to oral histories of veterans to the occasional concert, Ms. Polk welcomed the world through the doors of Morse Institute Library in Natick, where she was director since 1993.

"People of all ages want to come into the library and find new things," she told the Globe in 2006.

Ms. Polk died Sunday in her Southborough home of complications of cancer. She was 59.

"She was focused on building a community," said her husband, Richard J. Wallace. "You go in some libraries, and they're repositories of information. She was involved in programs that reached out to various groups and always pushed the staff to provide additional services. In doing so, she brought people to the library and made sure that patrons felt welcome."

That meant expanding the traditional role of the library, which Ms. Polk did with precision and planning. Two years ago, she joined other library officials in preparing a strategic plan that included conducting focus groups and surveying the opinions of Natick residents.

"This process allows you time to think through what you've been doing the last five years and what you'd like to do the next five years," she told the Globe in July 2006. "It gives the public a voice, which is probably the most important thing."

In 2003, when construction delayed the opening of the theater at The Center for the Arts in Natick, a couple of concerts were held in the Morse Institute Library's community meeting room, which was fine with Ms. Polk, even though it meant she stayed at work until 10 p.m. on Sunday nights.

"It is Paula's vision that arts and culture belong throughout the town, and we would help in any way," Joan Craig, who then was the library's community relations coordinator, told the Globe in June 2003.

Ms. Polk also supported using library facilities to collect recorded interviews for the Veterans Oral History Project, which chronicles the experiences of those who have fought in wars.

"One of the reasons that this is so important to us is because it's a primary source of research material," she told the Globe in May 2000. "Certainly, this expands all of our knowledge of war history, but also Natick history. We feel passionately about capturing pieces of it before it's lost."

She added, "On a personal level, until you see these tapes, you could have read every book that was written about World War II, and it wouldn't have had the same impact. The medium itself is especially moving."

Born in Memphis, Ms. Polk grew up in Springfield, Mo., and graduated from Beloit College in Wisconsin with a bachelor's degree in history.

Ms. Polk received a master's in library and information science from the University of Missouri before heading east to Western New England College School of Law in Springfield.

"She passed the bar, of course, and she maintained her license to practice, but she never did," her husband said. "She said more than once that she loved school and, if she could, she would go to school all the time."

Instead, she left the halls of academia for the hushed rooms of libraries, first as branch coordinator and assistant director of Waltham Public Library. From there, she became director of Leominster Public Library and then director of Wilbraham Public Library, before taking over as head of Natick's library.

Wallace was working for a publishing company and was at the Wilbraham library on business when he met Ms. Polk, whom he married in 1979.

"Paula was one of the strongest people I've known," he said. "She was decisive, knew what was right, knew what she wanted to do, and then she found a way to get it done."

Ms. Polk's daughter, Blake Poggi, said her mother's smile "probably stands out to everyone."

"She would smile warmly at people she passed outside the library, walking through Natick," Poggi said. "And in the library, she wanted to be involved in all of the programs, even just to be at the door smiling and welcoming."

Last year, the nonprofit Natick Education Foundation presented Ms. Polk with the Educator Shining Light Award for her contribution to the town's children.

In 2007, she was honored by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women as one of the organization's "unsung heroines."

"She wanted the library to be a central part of the community, not just a place to pick up books, but a place to expand your mind and knowledge, a place to bring your family, to bring your parents," her daughter said.

Said Wallace: "It was her personality that was expressed through the library to the community, and it's what made it such a vibrant part of the cultural community. She had a spirit that was beyond one lifetime, I think."

In addition to her husband and daughter, Ms. Polk leaves a son, James of Southborough; her mother, Rosemary (Mahoney) Morrow, of Springfield, Mo.; two brothers, Michael and John Polk, both of Springfield, Mo.; a sister, Diane Ramsay of Westfield; and two grandsons.

In Ms. Polk's honor, the Morse library will be closed today, according to its website.

A memorial service will be held at noon today in John Everett & Sons Funeral Home in Natick. Burial will be private.