Minnesota Prairie Roots

AS I SIPPED ROOT BEER through a colorful striped straw, the soda mixing with melting vanilla ice cream, I thought of the 93-year-old who enjoyed this simple summer treat. Bob, born Robert Lee Crandall, delighted in root beer floats. And on this first day of autumn, in the Great Hall of Buckham Memorial Library, an appreciative group gathered to honor this Faribault man for the legacy he left in his community.

Crandall, who died in January 2021, gifted nearly $3 million to the City of Faribault, designated specifically for the benefit of his beloved local library. That mega gift came in four installments totaling $2,940,927.

What a gift. What a reason to celebrate with music (by Mike Hildebrandt, Dallas Musselmann and Doug Madow), memories and presentation of an over-sized check representing Crandall’s generosity. He will also be recognized with a permanent plaque to be installed in the library entry. Grateful words cast thereon will honor his gift and its impact on future generations.

The monies, according to Library Director Delane James, will be used in three ways, in a plan created by the Library Advisory Board and approved by the Faribault City Council: A third of the original gift will become a permanent endowment that benefits both present and future library users. Another third will be used to upgrade the library’s current space. James cited technology, hearing loop system and acoustic treatments upgrades to the Great Hall, for example. And the final third of Crandall’s original gift will go toward equipping a future maker space incubator.

I’d like to think Crandall, old enough to remember the Great Depression as a young boy, would approve of this sound financial plan. He spent hours at the library, quietly reading and studying books about investing. And he kept up on the daily stock market, said Anne Pleskonko, who met Crandall six years ago in her then-job at Milestone Senior Living. She got to know the man behind the legacy—a man fond of John Wayne movies and television series like “The Andy Griffith Show” and “Columbo”.

She spoke of his sense of humor, of his walking and biking the Sakatah Singing Hills State Trail, of his fondness for bacon, molasses cookies and pickled pigs’ feet. And root beer floats.

As I finished the last of my root beer float, I considered Pleskonko’s closing statement that Crandall’s nearly $3 million gift is “a gift for all for generations to come.” I understood that fully as I observed the young families surrounding me, including the sweet blonde-haired girl toddling across the carpet, leaving so many of us smiling. I’d like to think that Crandall would be smiling, too, happy to see little ones in the library he loved, the place where he gained knowledge on investing, the place he clearly held so dear.

© Copyright 2023 Audrey Kletscher Helbling