MOORHEAD - Librarian Anne Fredine retires today after spending nearly three decades working at the Moorhead Public Library.
"When you hear the word 'librarian' you think kind of a stern face, kind of angry," said Lauri Winterfeldt, Lake Agassiz Regional Library board member. "She is definitely not your stereotypical librarian. Anne is always smiling, always bubbly."
Fredine took the job as library director of the Moorhead library in 1986.
"When I came to Moorhead, I really thought I was only going to stay for five years and move on to something different, but it's been too much fun," said Fredine.
She instead stayed for 26 years doing more for the library than her title required.
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"I remember the day a flood of water was coming into the basement wall, and there was Anne and her husband, Rich, on a Sunday evening on the roof out in the rain trying to find the source of the leak so that it could be plugged," said Kathy Fredette, LARL regional library director.
She also planted flowers around the library for beautification, oversaw a $1.4 million expansion to the library and had a hand in re-establishing the Friends of the Moorhead Library group. The Moorhead Library Board renamed the technology center the Anne B. Fredine Technology Center.
A retirement reception was held in her honor Saturday night at the Moorhead Library, with about 200 people in attendance.
Fredine was diagnosed with metastatic colon cancer in February 2011 and started chemotherapy that March. She went to Mayo Clinic last week.
"Her health sped up the timing of her retiring but wasn't the reason for it," Rich Fredine said. "It's not like she hasn't thought about retiring before."
Anne Fredine plans to spend her retirement sewing, gardening and traveling to see her relatives.
"I can't tell you how wonderful it's been working with these people all these years," Anne Fredine said. "And I might have actually done it for free, but I've never said that out loud," she said.
Readers can reach Forum reporter Demetria Mosley at (701) 451-5607
