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…
