TimesLeader.com

Pauline Kutz is fixture at library

By Rebecca Bria rbria@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

It was 25 years ago when Pauline Kutz filled in as secretary for the Back Mountain Library Board of Directors.

click image to enlarge

Pauline Kutz

Related headlines

• ‘Cheap’ chairs valuable

Select images available for purchase in the
Times Leader Photo Store

The Dallas woman was asked by then secretary Corrine Pawling to do her job just for one evening while Pawling was on vacation with her family. That trip would change everything.

Pawling was injured in a whitewater rafting accident on her vacation and could no longer fulfill her duties as secretary. Kutz stepped in and was the board’s secretary until late last year when she resigned to take care of her husband, Dr. Anthony Kutz, a retired Dallas dentist who was in poor health. Dr. Kutz died on April 22.

Kathy Millington has since replaced Kutz as secretary of the library board of directors.

Kutz worked hard as secretary to record all of the minutes of the meetings, a task she did by longhand since she does not type. Kutz says Millie Zaremba often typed the minutes for her so they were clear before they were sent to board members.

Kutz has been involved with the library auction for much longer than 25 years, serving as an auction volunteer since the early 1970s when a woman in her neighborhood, Lucille Bittenbender, asked her to help with the antiques.

Many people will also remember Kutz from the Dallas Elementary School where she worked as a school nurse until late 2008 when her husband became ill.

“I loved the kids,” Kutz said. “They picked you up even when you were grouchy.”

Although Kutz is still involved with the antiques, her main responsibility at the auction is to take care of the volunteers by providing them with food and beverages. She makes sure every volunteer is fed from the time the tents go up on Sunday morning to when they are taken down.

“I just think it’s a nice tradition and I hope it continues,” Kutz said of the auction. “With the economy the way it is, the state is supposed to cut our funding in half.”

Kutz has many memories of auctions from over the years, but specifically remembers a statue of Zeus that went over the block.

“They put a napkin over his bottom,” Kutz said. “Ernie Ashbridge said to me, ‘When the thing goes over, I want you to go up and untie that bandana.’”

Kutz complied and the crowd broke out in laughter.

Kutz also recalls having to carry used books from the basement up the stairs and onto the lawn before the Slightly Read Bookshop was located underneath the children’s wing. It was a difficult task in the heat and humidity of July, so Kutz called the Marines and asked for help.

“Those guys came in and, I’m telling you, it was amazing to watch,” Kutz said. “And we were all so grateful for what they did.”

Kutz’s children, Mary Murphy, of Mountain Top, and Dr. John Kutz, of Scranton, try to make it back to the auction whenever they can. Kutz says Murphy will bring her daughters, Abbey, 12; and Maggie, 9, on Family Night.

A few years ago, Kutz put in chances for boxes of candy for her grandchildren in a raffle and Maggie won an entire caseload.

“The people were hollering, ‘Her grandfather is a dentist and look at all the candy she won!’”

Kutz, who never tells her age, will continue to volunteer at the auction for as long as she is able.

“For whatever I did or contributed to this library, I’m proud of,” Kutz said. “I think it was more than worth it.”