An endowed public library changed my life. The McGregor Public Library in Highland Park Michigan was close to my Junior High School. I grew up in central Detro

An endowed public library changed my life. The McGregor Public Library in Highland Park Michigan was close to my Junior High School. I grew up in central Detroit a few miles from downtown. The neighborhood was rough and having been assaulted many times before, I was apprehensive about walking home from junior high school. Gangs of violent kids would form up after school and it made the journey perilous. However, close to the school there was a library; it was a big library, much bigger than one would expect from the neighborhood. I would quickly make my way to the library and hide out until around dinner time and then, when the streets were clear, I would make my way home. I'd always been a curious kid, but for the first time I started reading science magazines. I quickly graduated to reading Scientific American. I read all of the years issues (1963) and then started reading the bound issues going back over 10 years. I was fascinated with Marin Gardner's columns and the Amateur Scientist columns that appeared in every issue. I also started reading Popular Electronics around that time. I also read every math and science book I could understand in that library. I was learning very little in the public schools they weren't good. The thugs in my classes were disruptive and prevented the rest of us from being able to have good classes. My homework and science projects were stollen or destroyed out of spite, but it was always peaceful in the library where I kept reading. My parents finally moved from that place and I finished the last two years of High School in a suburb where all of my friends were good students and all planning on applying for college. I was quickly promoted to the honors classes and ended up as the top math and science student in a very large school. None of this would have been possible if that library had not existed. I ended up at MIT and obtained degrees in Math and EE/CS. I've been very successful and I attribute that to my love books, especially technical books, fostered by my time at the McGregor Public Library. Sadly, that library is now closed. There is now a locked fence around the building. [1] [1] https://www.google.com/maps/place/Highland+Park+Library/@42.3967685,-83.0910795,3a,90y,68.26h,90.83t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1saHi9CduexI-YW7n7ZW6O-w!2e0!7i16384!8i8192!4m7!3m6!1s0x8824cd91f4ef621f:0xf7c63a843d15022c!8m2!3d42.3969685!4d-83.0905174!10e5!16s%2Fg%2F1ts_76ys?hl=en https://www.google.com/maps/place/Highland+Park+Library/@42....