A thank you to Frank Birmingham

I was informed by his son Rick that professor emeritus Dr. Frank Birmingham passed away last week. Below is my tribute to him...

“You have a fax machine in Saudi Arabia?”

I did not know it at the time, but those words changed the course of my career. Let me explain…

In the spring of 1989, I was finishing five years of teaching for the ARAMCO schools in Saudi Arabia and looking forward to moving back to the States. While I appreciated the opportunities for travel and financial rewards the expatriate experience afforded me, I wanted my toddler son to be closer to his grandparents and for me work where technology and libraries were beginning to merge.

I wanted to relocate to the Twin Cities but first I needed that Minnesota teaching license. In order to get that, I had to have my credentials examined and approved by a professor at a Minnesota library school program. I somehow got a hold of a Dr. Frank Birmingham at Mankato State University (now Minnesota State University, Mankato.)

Frank was rather gruff when I asked him to review my transcripts and Iowa teaching license on a phone call I made from Saudi. “It’s the end of the semester here and I have a lot of work to do. How soon can you get this stuff to me?” he asked.

“How about if I fax it to you within the next half hour?” I replied.

With both incredulity and delight in his voice, he exclaimed, “You have a fax machine in Saudi Arabia?” 

I discovered later that Frank had lobbied for a fax machine for the library school which until that time, sat unused. (Takes some time for modern technology to become accepted.) My faxes justified his purchase and made me his friend. 

So in mid-July when I moved back from Saudi with my Minnesota teaching license in hand, I drove to Mankato to met Frank in person and take him out for lunch. While eating, he asked if I had applied for the secondary library position in St Peter, a small town just north of Mankato. 

“That job is filled, I believe.”

“No,” Frank informed me, “the guy they hired backed out, so the position is back open.”

I has a spare resume in the visor of my car, so on drive back to Minneapolis, I stopped in to the office of St. Peter public high school. The principal was on vacation, but I got a spur of the moment interview with the Assistant Principal and the Curriculum Director. I got the job. They were desperate.

This was just the first of many helpful suggestions Frank gave me as I was starting the Minnesota episode of my career.

• He encouraged me to join the state school library association (MEMO at the time) and attend their fall conference that first year I taught. I remained involved in MEMO for 25 years, serving as president, conference chair, newsletter editor, and legislative chair.
• He published my first professional article in library school's newsletter “The Virtual Librarian.” I went on to publish 148 more articles during my career (along with columns and books.)
• He hired me as an adjunct professor, teaching School Library Management and early internet courses. The materials I created for those classes became the framework for my first book, The Indispensable Librarian.
• He recommended me for the AV Director position in the Mankato Schools in 1991, which morphed into the Technology Director job title. I held that job for 23 years. He had earlier suggested I get my supervision license by taking administration courses.
• He got me and the other librarians in the school district email accounts on the university’s vax computer. This made our librarians early tech specialists and allowed me to join LM_Net, a discussion list of school library leaders from around the world.
• He suggested I join the local Kiwanis organization where I served as president and in other roles.  This large service club had members that were influential in the community = government workers, business leaders, etc. I semi-jokingly like to say that I kept my job with the school district since I convinced the community I was a technology genius because I could hook almost any laptop up to the club’s projector. 

Frank each summer hosted library school get-togethers at his home on Lake Jefferson to which I was always invited and always enjoyed. He made me feel a part of the library school department with Fran McDonald, Ken Pengally, and Don Descy. I got to know his sons. I visited Frank in his retirement home in Florida. We would get together at least once during the summer when he returned to his lake home.

To my regret, we mostly lost touch after he retired and moved south, remaining there during the summer as well as winter. I should have made more effort to see how he was doing. I should have told him how much his guidance and encouragement helped me in my career and my life. I should have just been more grateful.

My guess though is that Frank’s “payment’ for his mentorship was the knowledge that he helped me, and many others. Why is it that we often get more satisfaction and pleasure from the achievements of those we care about than we do our own achievements?

Thank you, Frank. You made a big difference to me and I am sure to many others. You made the world a better place.

Comments

[Mandy]

I was just thinking today about the people that were so pivotal in my becoming and educator and librarian. I never would have imagined meeting them or the doors they would open for me. Sounds like Frank was one of those very people for you. He sounds like he was an amazing mentor.

[Doug Johnson]

Hi Mandy,

I hope all people have mentors or some sort - and the common sense to follow their advice! Be a mentor yourself.

Doug

[Floyd Pentlin]

Beautiful tribute. I didn't know Frank or Fran personally but knew of them and their work through my mentor, Aileen Helmick of Central Missouri State University. I particularly remember Aileen and Frank discussing the problems of the world and always assuming that librarians should be part of the solution.

[Doug Johnson]

Thanks for the note, Floyd. Wasn't it good to have a mentor!

Hope all is well in KC.

Doug

[Terry]

Now we are the new Franks. Keep paying it forward my friend