Marjorie Blackwelder’s friends and family gathered recently to remember and honor the late founder of the Friends of the Beavercreek Community Library.

The ceremony included the dedication of a CD/DVD case and two plaques, one in honor of Blackwelder, who passed away in April at the age of 95, and the other in honor of her late husband, William (Blackie), also a supporter of the library.

Blackwelder, the Beavercreek High School librarian for 17 years, was a member of the Beavercreek Women’s League, a civic organization established in 1969. When the league was asked, in 1975, by the Greene County Library to form a chapter of Friends of the Library in Beavercreek, Blackwelder quickly volunteered.

Initially the group’s function was to pass a levy to build a library in Beavercreek. Blackwelder led that successful campaign. The levy passed and the library opened in the fall of 1979. Blackwelder went on to lead two more ribbon cuttings at the Dayton-Xenia Road facility — for a 1992 renovation and a 2003 expansion.

The Friends organization, now with over 200 members, supports the library by hosting such events as the spring and fall book sales and by sending out two newsletters per year.

Blackwelder was a founding member of the library’s Great Books Discussion, a group started 35 years ago and supported by the Friends of the Library. It meets the first and third Tuesday, September to May, from 7 to 8:30 p.m.

“The members of Friends feel they have a pair of very large shoes to fill,” said Bobbie Carpenter, the current president. After many years as its president, Blackwelder turned the gavel over to Carpenter and served the last few years as Friends’ vice president.

“Her kind, friendly, intelligent contributions will be greatly missed by her many friends in BWL, Great Books, Friends of the Beavercreek Library and many other activities,” Carpenter said.

Another longtime member, Laura Pinney, said: “Marjorie was involved with libraries all her life, from the time, as a child, when she got her first card, to her recent retirement from the Friends of the Library Board … She held positions in libraries in Iowa to Harvard, from the military libraries to Beavercreek High School,” Pinney said.