I have recently read some very upsetting articles in the Harvard Press regarding Mr. Leo Blair’s behavior toward Mary Wilson. While I do not know Mr. Blair I have known Mary Wilson for a long time.
In the many years I have known Ms. Wilson, as a patron of the library, a member of the Harvard Finance Committee, and a fellow citizen of Harvard, I have developed a very deep respect for her personally and for her exceptionally capable (and frugal) management of the Harvard Town Library. When I was a member of the Finance Committee I found her financial reports and budget requests among the best submitted to that board.
Mary’s knowledge and her abilities to work with a diverse number of agencies and town committees were essential when we set out to build the new library. Her work during the planning and funding and building process contributed greatly to the quality of the new library. Her smooth management of the transition from the old library to the new facility demonstrated her project management skill.
If Mr. Blair’s behavior is at all like that described in the article in the Feb. 6 issue of the Press and subsequent letters to the editors, Mr. Blair owes Mary Wilson a public apology, at the very least.
R. Paul Olsen
Lancaster County Road
