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Loudoun Country Day School loses a 'gem'
Walking into the library at Loudoun Country Day School anytime over the last 19 years, you would have been met with the smiling face of librarian Eleanor Fall.
There is probably no student, parent or teacher there who hasn't been touched by one of her creative ideas or exciting adventures.
From field trips to the Library of Congress and Ellis Island to hosting the annual International Day or just playing games around the library, Fall always found ways to make lessons fun and educational at the same time.
Now, after nearly two decades, "Dr. Fall" as she's known around the Leesburg school, is retiring.
"I have the same excitement right now coming to work that I did 19 years ago," she said. "But you just have to know when it's time."
Loudoun Country Day School, which teaches kindergarten through eighth grade, will be moving to its new campus off Evergreen Mills Road in 2009, and Fall said she felt it was the right time for her to hand the job off to someone else.
It is not yet known who will take over her position.
Fall, 63, came to Loudoun County in 1985 after years of teaching in Granby, Mass. She was the first librarian hired at Loudoun Country Day School after the school's parent association lobbied for a full-time library position.
"The headmaster at that time [Raymond Nance] said he hired me because I had ideas," Fall said. "He gave me the library on a silver tray, and he said, 'It's yours.'"
Looking back, Fall said it makes sense she ended up working as a librarian.
In college, at Lake Erie College for Women in Ohio, she worked in the library to help pay her tuition.
Then, while working with the Red Cross in the Philippines during the Vietnam War, Fall worked at Clark Air Force Base, spending time with soldiers at the library and helping them write letters home.
Also, former Supervisor Jim Brownell appointed Fall to Loudoun County's Library board of trustees shortly before she took the librarian job at Loudoun Country Day School.
Over the years, Fall said, space in the library at Loudoun Country Day School has been used for many things, including a computer lab, French class, writing lab and meeting space.
Now, the library holds more than 12,000 books and one of the most advanced automation programs in the country, RFID (for Radio Frequency Identification), which makes checking out and performing inventory of materials a simple task.
A student can pile a stack of books on the checkout counter, and the program can scan them all at the same time, Fall said.
"We are fully entrenched in technology now," she said.
Even though kids today know all about computers and many have cell phones and iPods, their love of reading and curiosity has not suffered, Fall said.
"We learn about good books, good literature, poetry and hopefully some life lessons," she said. "I think it's important for children to know about the world. This library is not just four walls."
Fall was given a staff assistant about five years ago -- Renee Kelahan.
"She has always been my hero," Kelahan said of Fall. "It's going to take five of us to even come up with anything close to what she did."
Around the school, staff members have nothing but good things to say about Fall, and they say the school will never be the same when she leaves.
"There are just some folks that are irreplaceable, and she's one of them," Headmaster Randall Hollister said. "She makes a difference every day."
Staff member Amy Warner summed it up when she said, "We're losing a real gem."
Contact the reporter at ecoe@timespapers.com
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