South East Library will close for renovations on January 4 for at least two years. During that time, the Friends of the Southeast Library (FoSEL) will suspend their monthly book sales, the proceeds of which go to library programs.
Known for its highly successful book sales, FoSEL wasn’t always the force in the Capitol Hill community that it is today. Former president Neal Gregory – who stepped down last January when he and his wife moved off the Hill – led the organization as it became one of the most active and financially successful friends-of groups operating in of the DC Public Library system.
FoSEL was founded in 1982, but by 2000 had fallen into a state of somnolence until the presidency of author Margaret Hollister reinvigorated the organization. When she stepped down five years later, Neal Gregory succeeded her.
In a recent interview, Gregory mentioned two things as his major contributions to FoSEL: the creation of a logo for FoSEL – designed by Karen Falk – and the monthly (except August) library book sales. Before 2005, FoSEL held one or two book sales a year.
Others give him credit for much more.
Raising Funds for the Library
Long time FoSEL member Jack Wennersten says one of Gregory’s greatest strengths was his people skills and his unique ability to “suffer fools gladly” in the face of sometimes dismissive treatment by DC Public Library’s (DL) “downtown staff” that seemed indifferent to library volunteers.
“Whatever we did didn’t seem to count much to the DL bureaucracy,” Wennersten says, “but they couldn’t dismiss Neal.” He said Gregory was “the principle organizing force behind the book sales to make sure they were a success and he was assiduous in adding a public relations component with book sale ads in the Hill Rag and other community media outlets.” Wennersten added that Gregory “made sure to fund children’s programs not funded by the Library.”
FoSEL is still the only Friends’ group in DC that holds a monthly sale. “At one point,” Gregory said, “we raised over a quarter of a million dollars in ten years – all of which went to the SE Library or other libraries for children’s programs and other .”
Under Gregory’s leadership, FoSEL developed another unusual fundraising strategy: selling books written by its own . Robert Pohl, who succeeded Gregory as FoSEL president last January, said that FoSEL had helped publish two books by of the Friends: The End of Slavery in the District of Columbia by Jack Wennersten and Pohl in 2009, and Hollywood on the Potomac by Mike Canning in 2012. Proceeds from the sale of the books went to FOSEL for of library programs.
The Broad Reach of Neal’s Efforts
In one of FoSEL’s more ambitious undertakings, Gregory directed FoSEL for the 2004-2005 re-landscaping of SE Library, a project of a local Girl Scout troop and their moms – and a project which was resisted by DL. “We just went ahead with it,” Gregory added.
FoSEL made an initial contribution of $5,000 and helped organize community fundraisers that raised another $50,000. Gingko Gardens and its owner, Mark Holler, designed and landscaped the area. He provided plants, soil, fertilizer, and other supplies at cost. FoSEL provided garden furniture and other equipment used in summer children’s activities. FoSEL also paid $3,500 for an underground irrigation system. Gingko Gardens maintained the garden at no cost for several years before DL took over maintenance.
Gregory also saw to it that FoSEL’s work did not end with the Southeast Library. During his tenure, the group ed public school libraries across the Hill by creating a simple process to apply for grants for school libraries. FoSEL donated books to the DC Jail, women’s shelters, Botswana school libraries, the Old Soldiers Home, and the Marine Barracks. The group made financial donations to the MLK Library’s Adult Literacy Department.
Within the Southeast library itself, FoSEL bought the first public computers (four) prior to those installed as part of the renovation in 2016. FoSEL bought other electronic equipment including a Blue ray DVD player and television, still in use at the Library.
After the City Council finally authorized funding for the Southeast Library renovation in 2018, Councilmember Charles Allen asked Gregory and ANC6B Commissioner Jerry Sroufe to represent the community on the design selection committee. Likewise, he appointed the pair to the “Stakeholders Taskforce” to provide community input on the redesign of Eastern Market Metro Plaza, of which the library is a crucial component.
Gregory was born in Tupelo, Mississippi – Elvis Presley’s hometown – and went to Old Miss for degrees in journalism and political science. He started out as a reporter for a local newspaper and came to Washington on a fellowship, launching a career in politics working for of Congress, including Senator Al Gore, Sr., and then Vice President Hubert Humphrey.
He had said he would leave the country if Nixon got elected. Shortly after Nixon’s victory, Gregory bought a round-the-world ticket on Pan Am. He worked as a free-lance journalist abroad and fell into a job as a publicist for a movie starring Marlon Brando being filmed in Morocco which was released under the title of “Burn.”
Later, watching it snow in St. Petersburg (then Leningrad) – Gregory decided it was time to go home. He became the first political editor of the National Journal, married Janice, his wife of 52 years, and started a family. He transitioned out of politics and journalism into public relations with Hill + Knowlton then to his own firm, from which he retired in 2006.
He and Janice became authors in their own right in 1980. On a whim, they had saved dozens of newspapers published the day after Elvis Presley died in 1977. Gregory’s friend Jim Malloy, Doorkeeper of the US House of Representatives, let him have the papers which the Doorkeeper’s Office was going to discard. The Gregorys put them aside and “didn’t do anything with them” until a chance encounter at a cocktail party with a DC publisher who encouraged them to turn the collection into a book. That idea became “When Elvis Died” which was published in 1980 and sold 10,000 copies. Gregory says, “We have a fantasy of it being republished, but we’ll see.”
