After twenty years of service, Ken Gross retired from the Library staff at the end of February, 2024. Ken started at the Library as part-time program director, planning, promoting, and hosting all the adult programs at the library in 2004. Programs, then as now, included authors and poets, of course, and also artists, musicians, historians, actors, environmentalists, naturalists, architects, gardeners, health counselors, book clubs, writing classes, and travelers and experts from all over. Ken also hosted a long-running Coffeehouse series at the library and an ongoing Songwriters series.
In addition to filling the Library’s calendar with community events, Ken had many other roles at the library. As Assistant Library Director and Director of the Walsh History Center, Ken oversaw renovations on the Library’s second floor, and painting, roofing, HVAC, and ongoing repair projects over the years. He promoted Camden’s annual Winterfest celebration over the past two decades. The Camden Herald was digitized and posted online under his guidance. The Library’s Summer Concert Series and Summer Movie series through the years were part of Ken’s responsibilities, as well as hosting and support of many town organizations over the years such as the Camden Conference, Camden Garden Club, Camden Philosophical Society, the Camden-Rockport Historical Society, Union of Maine Visual Artists, Senior College, and the Library’s own Harbor Arts festival and regular book sales
“I won’t be going far!” said Ken. “I have several projects that I want to see through in the History Center that I intend to keep working on as a volunteer. The Camden library is the best place to be!”