Edward A. de Sciora, a Baxter Estates resident who served as director of the Port Washington Public Library for over 35 years, has died.
De Sciora died on March 18, a day after his 92nd birthday.
Born in Chicago in 1928, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Bethany College in West Virginia in 1951, and a Master of Science degree in Library Science from Columbia University in 1954.
His early professional career included working at the Brooklyn Public Library, where he eventually became the first administrative assistant to the library director, a position he held before becoming library director in Port Washington in 1958.
During his term as library director in Port, he oversaw the move from the library’s location on Belleview Avenue to its current site, developing the program for the original 1970 building and executing that program in collaboration with Curtis and Davis, the internationally prominent architectural firm.
From the beginning he encouraged community participation, working closely with the Friends of Library. He also worked to form and support the library’s Art Advisory and Music Advisory Councils, as well as the library’s Local History Collection and Oral History Project, both under the supervision of Elly Shodell.
While staying involved with these local activities, de Sciora also had terms as president of the Public Library section of the New York Library Association, president of the Nassau County Library Association, and as a founding board member of the Long Island Library Resources Council.
He became a member of the Long Island Advisory Council of the State Commission for Human Rights in 1965, also serving on the National Board of the Gray Panthers and on the board of Planned Parenthood of Nassau County.
In addition to working with fellow librarians, De Sciora’s personal interests included mid-century art, architecture and design, reading, gardening and jazz.
He is survived by Susan (nee Organ), his wife of 37 years, and his children Edward (Petra), Peter (Alana), and Christine Paquette (Thomas), as well as his five grandchildren, Edward, Julia, Emily, Harper and James. De Sciora was predeceased by his first wife of 17 years, Anne (nee Romano).
Interment was private, and the family hopes to have a memorial in the future. The De Sciora family asks that contributions be made to the Lustgarten Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer Research, Planned Parenthood of Nassau County, the Port Washington Library Foundation or the Ministers’ Fund of the Unitarian Universalist Congregation at Shelter Rock.
