CARRYING HER MISSION FORWARD

Growing up in Brighton, Harriet Polner of Merrimac fondly remembers weekly visits to the Book Mobile with her mother and trips to the Central Library with her father where the beauty of the Courtyard made a lasting impression. These early experiences sparked a lifelong love of learning.

Harriet devoted her career to education, serving as a high school counselor, guidance director, and school psychologist. Throughout her career, she was committed not only to teaching students but also helping those who didn’t have many advocates. “I always sought opportunities to work with teenage girls who needed more support,” she said.

After obtaining a bachelor’s degree from Boston University in English education, she obtained a master’s degree from the University of New Hampshire to become a guidance counselor and a certificate of advanced graduate studies at the University of Massachusetts/Boston in school psychology.

When she began working at a vocational high school in Danvers, only 20% of the students went on to obtain further education immediately after graduation. She established a Community Resources Day to connect representatives from different professions with students, allowing her students to attend sessions to ask questions about careers that interested them. When she discovered that some students who wanted to attend college were receiving rejected applications because they hadn’t studied a foreign language, she arranged for students to take foreign language classes at a local community college.

When she retired after 15 years, a third of students at her school were continuing their studies after high school. Today she sees the Boston Public Library playing a similar role for job seekers and helping teens explore college and career options.

Harriet credits her love of learning to her parents, Frances and Maurice. Her mother, who worked for an insurance company in Boston, loved to travel and exposed Polner and her brother to music and theatre. Her father was a gifted writer and studied journalism at Northeastern University. However, after serving in World War II, family obligations required him to follow a government career.

To pay tribute to her parents and carry forward the mission that defined her career, Harriet named the Boston Public Library Fund as a beneficiary of her living trust. Her gift will establish the Frances S. and Maurice Polner Endowment, supporting workforce development initiatives at the Library.

Asked why others might consider a similar gift, she concludes, “It’s very satisfying to know that my estate will ultimately support an institution I care about deeply. For me, it was the Boston Public Library. It felt like the right place for my future support.”