Retirement reception honors library leader

Esther Short — Fort Vancouver Regional Library District hosted a retirement reception for Bruce Ziegman on Oct. 21. Ziegman retired after 22 years with the library district, including the last 10 years as executive director. The event was attended by 80 well-wishers, including three other past and present library directors: Ruth Watson (1967-1987), Sharon Hammer (1988-2000) and Patty Duitman, operations director, who is currently serving as interim executive director. The library district has had just one other director in its 61-year history: Eva Santee, who established Fort Vancouver Regional Library as the first intercounty rural library district in Washington in 1950 and served as its director until her retirement in 1965. (Santee died in 1979.) The library’s board of trustees has launched a nationwide search for the next executive director.