Great article about beloved librarian

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, August 18, 2007

I loved the Aug. 10 article “Whistle blower” by Mike Cane on Hall of Fame official Dennis Myers, who used to be the librarian at my grade school (Cedar Way Elementary in Mountlake Terrace). Whether it was pushing those audio-visual film projectors around as a librarian or refereeing those riveting state tournament basketball games, I don’t think I ever saw that man be still. He was just always in motion.

I remember being at one of the state championship games and turning to my father and saying, “Hey, Dad, look … it’s Mr. Myers!” In recent years, I’ve seen high school kids have similar reactions to him at district playoff basketball games as they all excitedly converged on a man who was their librarian in years past, lining up to say hello to him. You can’t put a price tag on something like that.

When a jaded cynic points out the recent NBA scandal involving referee Tim Donaghy as if to insinuate that officials in sports are necessary evils at best, I would say, “I can understand your frustration and pessimism, but I’ve also got a counterpoint: Go talk to anyone who officiated with Dennis Myers over the years or who played in games with Myers acting as both referee and as a non-adversarial peace-maker so that those players could enjoy an exciting, skillfully officiated contest. I think that you would then have a different perspective.”

Steve Goodman

Mountlake Terrace