For Sheila Whetzel: Time to Close the Book

For Sheila Whetzel: Time to Close the Book

By Marc Leepson

September 1, 2021, will be a bittersweet day in Middleburg. It marks the retirement date for Sheila Whetzel, the first and only branch manager of Middleburg’s well-used and cherished public library. She’s held that position since 1988, and during her long tenure has become a treasured and beloved figure.

Sheila Whetzel

Photo by Vicky Moon

In an email to her staff, Loudoun County Library Director Chang Liu wrote that, “Sheila is well-liked and highlyrespected…She inspires trust and confidence.” She also praised her “impeccable reputation and total commitment to serving the community…and is truly an exemplary public servant.”

On Wednesday, Sept. 1 the public is invited to stop by the library from 4-6 p.m. to help honor Whetzel (and have a bit of cake).

Whetzel was born and raised in Fairfax City, and has worked in libraries in Fairfax County and in Middleburg her entire career following graduation from Radford University. She met her husband, fellow librarian Steve Matthews, when both were working in Fairfax libraries. They were married in 1980, three years after he became the librarian—and an AP English teacher—at Foxcroft School.

She commuted to Fairfax until October, 1988, when, after receiving her MLA from Catholic University, she became the Middleburg Library’s first branch manager. Whetzel said she was thrilled to get the job as it “saved ten hours a week of commuting time” and “I got to see a lot more of my three-year-old daughter.”

The Middleburg Library will welcome Lilly Newton, head of the children’s division at Leesburg’s Rust Library, as Whetzel’s replacement in September. The Middleburg branch had been founded in 1984 by a group of book-loving local volunteers who “wanted more than a book mobile,” as Whetzel put it.

They operated the tiny independent Middleburg Regional Library, located in the basement of a town-owned building on South Madison Street. Six years later, after being incorporated into the Loudoun County Library system, it moved into a new, 2,200-square-foot building on Reed Street.

Whetzel lists the building’s groundbreaking and its opening as two of the highlights of her 30-plus years as manager. Also on her high list: doubling of the library’s size (it had been the smallest library in the county) in 2013.

That expansion and interior remodeling was paid for solely with $750,000 in donations from 270 local library supporters raised by the Middleburg Library Advisory Board.

Another highlight: “all the people I’ve gotten to know in the community. That’s what I’ll miss most,” Whetzel said. That includes library aides and other staffers who have worked for her since 1988. “Over the years, one of this job’s joys has been my wonderful staff,” she said. “We always have been a small staff and we’ve worked well and depended on each other.”

That includes Tina Thomas, a library aide who has worked with Whetzel since 2003, and who Whetzel calls her unofficial “assistant branch manager.”

“I learned a lot from her knowledge and experience,” Thomas said. “Her door is always open if you have questions or just want to sit and talk. She’s always on your side.”

Journalist, historian, and author Marc Leepson served as president of the Middleburg Library Advisory Board, on the Loudoun County Library Board of Trustees.