Marian Ranck Gerhart, 99

November 25, 2023

Marian Ranck Gerhart departed this life on Saturday November 25, 2023, in her one hundredth year. Born in Lancaster, PA, on Sunday February 3, 1924, to the late Mr. and Mrs. J. Paul Ranck, she graduated from J.P. McCaskey High School in 1941 and enrolled in Millersville State Teacher’s College. Upon graduation, and with the encouragement of Millersville’s Librarian Helen Ganser, she applied to Columbia University’s graduate program in Library Science. Her application, however, was looked upon with suspicion since her transcript showed perfect grades. Yet, with the intervention of Miss Ganser, Columbia University accepted her into the program, awarding her a scholarship. Libraries became a fundamental, lifelong dimension of her world, yet they were her second love. Paul Gerhart (known affectionately as Pablo) was her first love. Marian and Paul, also a graduate of the McCaskey Class of ’41, married in 1949. Paul was employed as a controller by the Warner Lambert Company and for a time, they lived in New York City. But the company wanted Paul in Buenos Aires, Argentina, so Marian learned to speak Spanish and off they went to South America where the footloose couple enjoyed several happy years.

Upon returning to the United States, they made their home in Morristown, New Jersey, where Paul continued his work for Warner Lambert, and Marian made her mark transforming the small public library in Morristown into a powerhouse of learning and community activity. Marian became a respected leader in the field of library science and served as a mentor to many in the profession. Maria Norton, who Marian mentored from the time she was a 14-year-old library volunteer and became the Morristown librarian herself, shared: “She made teenagers feel like they were the most important people in the world.” She added, “We had to do inventories by hand, and she’d tell us, ‘This is so important and it’s critical that we get it right.’”

Marian and Paul moved back to Lancaster and enjoyed life in the Willow Valley retirement community where, once again, she donned her librarian hat, this time at Franklin & Marshall College. There she met a young student, Charlie Bickford, with whom she remained best of friends the remainder of her life. At Willow Valley she kept a beautiful flower garden and created, from scratch, a lending library that went on to be replicated in other buildings within the Willow Valley community. For her 30 years of service to the Willow Valley libraries she was named Volunteer of the Year by LeadingAge PA, a professional senior living organization.

She also gave back to the community through her engaged support of the Lancaster County Historical Society, now LancasterHistory. There she volunteered in the library and archives and served in various capacities on its board of directors, eventually being elected to the position of board chair. In 2007 she was named a Fellow of the Lancaster County Historical Society in recognition of her distinguished service to the organization.

Marian was a direct, no-nonsense kind of person who saw a need and gathered the resources to meet the need. Through her generosity in the 1990s, she and Paul singlehandedly funded the new technical infrastructure at the historical society, ushering the organization into the computer age. She remained one of its most generous financial supporters until the time of her death. Beneath her businesslike countenance she had a warmth and softness that a few got to see. On her 99th birthday she reminisced about her childhood, the lilacs outside the house where she was born on East King Street—saying “I never thought I’d live anywhere else,” and reminisced about Pablo, the love of her life. She leaves behind her dear friends Charles and Barbara Bickford, of Portsmouth, N. H., their children, a host of friends at LancasterHistory, and her caregivers at The Glen at Willow Valley.

Graveside services will be held at 10AM, Saturday, May 4, 2024, at Cedar Lawn Cemetery, 50 Chesapeake Rd., Lancaster, PA 17602. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to LancasterHistory at 230 North President Avenue, Lancaster, PA 17603, or the Morristown and Morris Township Library at 1 Miller Rd Morristown, N.J. 07960.