In retirement, Larry Thurrell makes books his business

Anyone who has visited Hockessin’s largest used book sale in search of a cheap, dog-eared paperback or a rare premium find owes Larry Thurrell a thank you.

Thurrell, a member of the Friends of the Hockessin Library for more than a decade, is the point man for the Friends’ annual book sale.

Last year’s sale included 57,000 volumes and raised more than $40,000 for the Friends, he said, making it by far their largest fundraiser.

But the book sale was a bit humbler when Thurrell joined 10 years ago – he got involved through the Center for the Creative Arts, another organization for which he still volunteers.

The Friends stored their books in a shed on CCArts property, he recalled, and he volunteered to help sell them.

“When 2003 came, our storage shed up and left,” he said. “It floated downstream.”

Thanks to Tropical Storm Henri, the Friends never did find all the pieces of their shed, though Thurrell remembered seeing soggy pages of books stuck in tree branches along the path of destruction. Never discouraged, the Friends relocated to a new shed near Old Lancaster Pike.

Since then, Thurrell and the other volunteers have continued to expand the sale; the Friends get so many items now that all the books won’t fit in the shed.

Collecting books has become a mission for Thurrell, who has put 3,500 miles on his truck this year gathering sale items.

The proceeds from the last few sales have gone toward the library’s reading garden, which was installed earlier this year, he said. The Friends decided to fund a garden because landscaping was not included in the plans when the library was expanded, Thurrell said.

Primarily a fundraising organization, the Friends also raise money by selling note cards with ink drawings of Hockessin landmarks as well as copies of Joe Lake’s “A Pictorial History of Hockessin.”

“The money goes to support the library in areas where the state and county do not,” he said.

In fact, the county has enlisted the Friends for fundraising help, he said. The cost of Hockessin’s library expansion overran original estimates, Thurrell said, so the Friends raised $800,000 to help the county pay for the expansion.

The money they raise has also paid for prizes for children’s activities, Christmas decorations, TV monitors and statuary for the children’s room.

For Thurrell, it’s rewarding to be able to give back to an organization as important as a library.

“It aids the value of Hockessin by having a desirable library,” he said. “It draws people to Hockessin.”

Thurrell, originally from New Hampshire, was drawn to Hockessin in 1958 as an employee at Hercules. After being transferred away and transferred back a few times, he settled in for good in 1976 and has lived in Auburn ever since.

Volunteering is something he’s enjoyed since his retirement, he said, and he intends to stick with the Friends as long as possible.

“As long as I can still pick up a box of books, I’ll be around,” he said.