Volunteer valued at Hayes Presidential

FREMONT – During the summer of 1985, Larry Cook took a computer class at Terra State Community College in Fremont. There he met a connection who sent him to the Hayes Presidential Library & Museums in Fremont where he would become the institution's long-serving volunteer. While learning about computers, Cook befriended Ruth Smith, who worked at the conservation at Hayes Presidential. After one of the classes, Smith discussed how she had very little free time, and Cook ironically pointed out that he had too much free time. "She said, 'You should come to the Hayes Center (Hayes Presidential's name at that time) and volunteer,'" Cook said. "So, two days later, I stopped in, and I've been here ever since." In the nearly 41 years he's helped out, Cook has been a fixture at the: • Annual Christmas dinners at Spiegel Grove, multi-course formal meals served at the president's table in the dining room • Verandah Concerts where he scoops ice cream • Museum, helping with special exhibits and cataloging collections He has worked more than 8,100 volunteer hours. "He holds the record for the most hours served," said Joan Eckermann, Hayes Presidential's special events and volunteer coordinator. "His dedicated service at our various activities has been invaluable to us." Cook's first project was to organize the director's correspondence file. He went through files of all the directors and archived their letters. "I got a really good background on the Hayes Center and a really good feel for the different priorities of the various directors and what they focused on," he said. Through the years, he's organized family photos of Admiral Webb C. Hayes II — grandson of President Rutherford and First Lady Lucy Hayes — and his wife, Martha, as well as their letters; archived local history collections dealing with the city of Sandusky and its history; and worked on the collection of Thaddeus Hurd, a historian who founded the Clyde Heritage League. He enjoys working with the collections because he learns about the history and gets to know the people, such as the admiral and his wife. For example, he learned that the pair met during an outing to Mouse Island, which the Hayes family owned, in Lake Erie. "With the admiral, he was a really high-quality character," Cook said. "Reading the letters back and forth between him and his wife, he was really a good guy. I think the same thing (of Martha). She had a really good character about her." During Christmas dinners, Cook has most often been the assistant butler, clad in a tuxedo and helping guests enjoy a memorable, Victorian holiday evening. He started helping with the dinners in 1986 in various roles: from working in the kitchen to serving to even being a guest before taking over the assistant butler role. "You get to see the people," he said. "You get to see the house as a home, and people are just mingling. It's not a museum anymore for those three nights. It's also a real team effort on the part of the staff and volunteers." Two things that have impressed Cook the most about his more than four decades as a Hayes Presidential volunteer: the growth of the volunteer program and the friendships he has made with the staff and other volunteers. "The first volunteer recognition was, I think, four of us around the table at the Dillon House," said Cook, referencing a property across the street that Hayes Presidential used to own. "The program hadn't developed yet. Look what it's become in this time period." Today there are more than 100 volunteers. "You got to know the people you were working with," he said. "It wasn't just the interaction you had here at the library. You got to know them on a personal level, and I really liked that." People can learn more about volunteer opportunities by calling 419-332-2081 or visiting rbhayes.org.