Kirkpatrick transitions from director to patron after 33 years

Jana Mathia | Oct 01, 20200

count

Kristie Kirkpatrick, seated, with Bill Gates, front, right, Nov. 2002 when Bill Gates and Gates Foundation officials visited the library in culmination of the Foundation's 5-year, $200 million dollar effort to bring Internet and public computing to all public libraries in the U.S. Whitman County libraries received over $93,000 in equipment and telecommunication solutions. Also pictured, left to right, are Judy Willcox, (3 Gates' officials) Clancy Pool, Marie Dymkoski, Neva Jean DeYoung, Cindy Wigen, Peggy Bryan, Kathy Carr (behind Gates), Jill Cocking, Gene Ellithorpe and James Morasch.

COLFAX-It was the year the compact disc video was unveiled, Aretha Franklin became the first female artist to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and "Walk Like an Egyptian" was the number one song of the year.

It was 1987, the year Margaret Thatcher won her third term as British Prime Minister and the year Kristie Kirkpatrick started as the branch manager at the Rosalia library.

"When past librarians, Elaine Zinke, Lana Feldman and Bernice Frick joined me for a four-generation photo, I knew working for the library was monumental," said Kirkpatrick of that first day. "It wasn't just...