Mary Gaffin, Beloved Adams County Librarian and Literacy Champion, Dies

Mary Gaffin traveled to Paris to celebrate her 90th birthday, a fitting milestone for a woman who spent her career urging Adams County students and neighbors to reach beyond their own county lines through books. Gaffin, who served as a librarian at Manchester High School and at the Adams County Public Library, passed away before month's end, with The People's Defender publishing her obituary on March 30, 2026.

She retired in 2024 after a career spanning two of the county's most essential literacy institutions. At Manchester High School she worked as the school librarian, supporting students and faculty through decades of shifting curricula. At the Adams County Public Library, she was part of the backbone of community programming that rural libraries provide: internet access for households without broadband, early-literacy initiatives, after-school activities, and the preservation of local history.

Outside the library, Gaffin was a member of the Nathaniel Massie Chapter of the Order of the Eastern Star, adding civic volunteerism to an already full life of public service. Theater joined travel as a personal passion, and family held a central place. She made a point of nurturing a love of reading in her grandchildren and great-grandchildren, carrying the work of her career into the next generations.

In a rural county like Adams, a librarian who accumulates that kind of tenure becomes irreplaceable in ways no job posting can capture. Long-serving staff hold the institutional memory that connects patrons to resources, programs to community needs, and new colleagues to decades of accumulated practice. Gaffin's 2024 retirement closed her era of direct service; the readers she shaped across Manchester's hallways and the library's stacks remain her most lasting contribution to Adams County.