Local families honor parents with donations to Porter Library

(From left) Sarah, Dave and Suzanne Beebe examine the globe they and their family donated to Westlake Porter Public Library to honor Dave's late father, Russell C. Beebe.

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The Snider family of Westlake and the Beebe family of North Olmsted recently donated to Westlake Porter Public Library to honor their parents. The Beebe family donated a globe in memory of their late father and grandfather, Russell C. Beebe. The globe was unveiled on Aug. 23, and is located in the library’s Reading Room. The Snider family donated a quote to honor their parents on their father’s 90th birthday. The quote was unveiled on Aug. 26, and is located on the wall over the large print and fiction collections.

Russell Beebe, who died in 2011, was an avid reader and lifelong library fan who took his children and grandchildren to the library before they had even started school. In 2016 – the fifth anniversary of his death – the Beebe family decided they needed to do something to honor him, and the library was the natural choice for a recipient. The globe was chosen in tribute to Russell’s habit of looking up locations he had heard of on the news to get a better idea of where they were and the conditions that existed where news was being made.

The quote was donated by siblings John and Steve Snider and Beth DeVencenzo to honor their parents, Edward and Janet Snider, for Edward’s 90th birthday. The quote is a Chinese proverb reading, “Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.”