After getting burnt out working for a Wild West-themed amusement park and buffet — where he had to pay for his own bolo tie and cowboy hat — a 16-year-old Will O’Hearn accepted a job shelving books at his local library in Marengo, Illinois.
He was just happy to take a different job, he joked, but O’Hearn ended up falling in love with the work. He stayed at the library for his last two years of high school and two years during community college, but he didn’t initially think of it as a career.
After a stint in business administration at Pepsi Co. — a job that “just didn’t fill my cup,” O’Hearn said — he has now spent 18 years employed at library systems in Illinois, Colorado and most recently as the director of library services in Eugene, Oregon.
Following a monthslong search, the city of Chattanooga announced Thursday it hired O’Hearn to serve as its new head of the public…
