Allan Appel photo
Artist Frank Bruckmann with John Jessen's portrait.
When both a face-painter and volunteer Captain America failed to show up at a kids event at the Wilson Branch Library in the Hill, the then-branch librarian John Jessen donned the stinky old Captain America uniform and became a superhero of a role model that day – not only for the kids of the Hill but also, by example, for his staff, and the larger New Haven community.
He also, by all reports, did an excellent job sketching Batman masks and other doodads on 40 happy small faces.
That type of magical, people-loving spirit was evoked in story after story that accompanied the formal unveiling of the portrait of John Jessen — the man who went on to become the first internal candidate to rise to be City Librarian in 2019, and died a year ago, at age 56.
Friday evening, the portrait, painted by neighbor and fellow Westvillian Frank Bruckmann, quietly awaited, beneath a thin white covering, as more than 100 people gathered — library folks, family, officials including Mayor Justin Elicker and State Rep. Pat Dillon, and admirers from a broad and diverse swath of New Haven — at the Ives Main Branch Library to celebrate John Jessen’s life, spirit, and humanitarian example.
The affecting work, with the subject’s face coming straight at you from a background of proudly upright books, was unveiled by Jessen’s sons Jack and William. It elicited a kind of silent “wow,” as if John Jessen were suddenly in the room again asking: So how are things going?
Drawing on the Catholic tradition that he shared with Jessen, New Haven Public Library Board member and long-time library advocate Michael Morand put it this way:
“In the faith tradition John and I shared, St. Irenaeus said the glory of God is the human being fully alive. I don’t know what you saw, but I saw the glory of God in John Jessen. Authentic, truly kind, and one of a kind.”
Erika Jessen with her sons Jack and William.
Children’s bilingual librarian Manuel Romero, who met Jessen 18 years ago when he first came to work at the library, said of the event, which was by turns happy, talky, collegial, and yet touched by profound grief, “This is [an event about] not a librarian, this is about a man who loved people.”
And incoming City Librarian Maria Bernhey, whom Jessen hired last spring, and who will take the helm from interim chief Maureen Sullivan on Monday, said: “John was the quintessential urban librarian – leadership internally and, as importantly, active and leading in the community.”
Click here to read an Indy profile of Jessen’s career published shortly after his death in May 2022; and here for this reporter’s favorite 2016 Jessen kid-and-reading-loving tale (tail?): How Jessen, a self-described Iowa farm boy (who fell in love with books), brought in to work two 17-week-old female rabbits, from the herd he kept in his Westville backyard. Why? Well, of course, to help calm down kids, rambunctious just after leaving school, and to promote children’s reading groups at the Wilson Branch Library when he was branch librarian there in 2016.
Among Jessen’s achievements — all the more remarkable as he accomplished them with trademark aplomb and good humor while under what turned out to be a fatal cancer diagnosis — included: Assisting Dixwell’s Stetson Branch Manager Diane Brown in overseeing the opening of a reborn Stetson Library at the newly rebuilt and reopened Q House; helping bring vaccine clinics and consulate pop-ups and passport services and Covid memorials and documentary screenings and social workers to the library, building off of its wealth of existing book-lending, job application, maker space, and youth support services.
Under Jessen’s leadership, the library also eliminated late fees, revamped its website, and also kept its annual Mardi Gras tradition alive online during Covid.
Not surprisingly, however, the stories’ speakers told of Jessen spoke largely not to achievements and policies, but of Jessen’s uniqueness, a personality that was a kind of elixir of love of books and learning, pleasure in and support of the staff he worked with, and the quotidian delight of simply being alive. It was as if — should the world have a kind of secular sainthood for librarians — a good case was being made for John Jessen.
Here are a few of many examples:
Karina Gonzalez, of her experience working with John, as her supervisor, at Wilson Branch Library: “The first thing he said to me was, ‘I will back up anything you do [program-wise], even if it’s out of scope, as long as it comes from kindness.’ He saw a library as a force of light and connection — so much all in one room.”
Diane Brown, Stetson Branch Librarian, where John worked briefly: “We connected not only as librarians but on a humanitarian level. If he could have put beds [in Stetson, for the homeless], he would have.” And shortly after the new Stetson opened (even when Jessen was quite ill), she invited him in for a reading program with kids. After the kids left, Brown reported he said, “This is why I became a librarian.”
Martha Dye, Hill activist and organizer of the Hill pop-up Arts & Ideas Festival at the Wilson Library: “John holds a very special place in my heart. He had a light and place in his heart to make us feel welcome. A light and spirit for the whole city of New Haven.”
Erika Jessen, John’s wife, whom he followed to New Haven in 2002 for her medical training, and who was the one who suggested he volunteer at the library, the rest being library history!: “Grief has some hard edges and a community [appreciation] softens that. It wasn’t that he was just a great guy, it was his vision, how he valued diversity, and it’s not easy to attain that. But [he saw that in] a public library [space] we could do that and we could all be [to each other] teachers and friends.”
Long-time Jessen admirers: Librarian Seth Godfrey (l) and Michael Morand
The artist, Frank Bruckmann, said that while he developed the portrait from photographs, Erika Jessen consulted. She advised him, in part, he recalled, about the intensity in John’s eyes. Bruckmann said that he was honored with the commission and “I had fun doing it, and Erika made it (the result) magical.”
Dr. Lauren Anderson, the president of the New Haven Free Public Library Board, who presided over the celebration, said ultimately the portrait will be hung beside those of other library directors in the board room, including City Librarian James Welbourne, Jessen’s beloved mentor who was the one who urged him to go to library school.
More immediate plans, however, are for the portrait to circulate for some weeks of residency at the Mitchell, Fair Haven, and Wilson libraries. “John’s going to have story time in all the branches,” she added.