By Darrell Kirk

Sounder contributor

Mark and Terese Gropper were enjoying delicious burritos from Johanna’s Catering in their car when a truck pulled up alongside them in the Island Market parking lot. Inside sat three friendly dogs, creating an impromptu social gathering that would have delighted Mark’s late mother, Gladys Gropper.

The Gropper family arrived on Orcas Island in 1950, eventually settling in Deer Harbor. Gladys cherished island life, documenting their experiences in detailed diaries. She served as librarian from 1958-1963, helping convert the Orcas Island Library to the Dewey Decimal System at what is now the Windermere Real Estate location, then continued serving the library from the 1950s until 2006 as lead bookmender and keeper of the archives. Along with her husband Bob, who participated in constructing the Grand Coulee Dam and worked as a WWII shipbuilder in Long Beach, California, and Vancouver, Washington, their legacy lives on through the Orcas Island Memorial Book Fund, created in 2006 in recognition of Gladys’ passionate work and advocacy for library service, with the initial gift provided by Phyllis and Bob Henigson. Those wishing to support the library can donate through this fund.

That afternoon’s canine encounter perfectly embodied the spontaneous island connections that Gladys so loved recording in her journals.