Passing of a friend to libraries...Denizil Pugh

"When I croak, when people come in to look through all my things, what will it say about my life?"

A little less than a year ago, Denzil Pugh wrote these words on his blog. After losing his mother, going through her things and facing his own mortality, he contemplated his legacy. We all want to leave our mark on the world, to be remembered.

Denzil will be remembered. It may not be world-wide or go down in the annuals of human history, but he left a legacy. Through his years of employment at the bookstores Chapter 11 and Borders, Denzil shared a love of books with hundreds of people. Customers and employees alike were impressed with his knowledge. There was nothing he loved more than connecting people with books that he thought they would enjoy. When Borders went out of business, he worked for Lifeway Christian Bookstores to stay around books. To further that connection, he began to volunteer with the Friends of the Nancy Guinn Library, where he was a valued member, and with the Friends of Georgia Libraries, a state-wide library advocacy group. Recently, he had relocated to Dallas, TX to work at the Brookhaven College bookstore.

Beyond his passion for books, Denzil was a sweet spirit with an impish sense of humor. He could make any conversation better (or worse) with a perfectly timed inappropriate comment. Even when things were difficult, he maintained an optimistic outlook. A friend referred to him as a “Tigger in a World of Eeeyores”, referencing Randy Pausch’s The Last Lecture. Denzil often referred to himself as Peter Pan, stating that he never wanted to grow up. He always maintained that childlike sense of wonder. He loved nature and hiking, and often felt most inspired walking alone on nature trails. He had an amazing work ethic, and wanted nothing more than to be appreciated and recognized for his talents and dedication. He was an amazing writer, with a unique and perceptive view of pop culture, world events, and cartoons. His work can still be read at: http://denzilpugh.blogspot.com/

We all want to leave a legacy. We want to think that the world is better for having us in it, and the truth is, very few of us are indispensable. If we passed on, the world would keep turning. But on May 12, the world stopped spinning for a bit. We lost one of the very best of us. Even if only a small percentage of people got to meet Denzil personally, his loss was felt. The world was better with him in it, and now those of us who were lucky enough to be his family and his friends owe it to him to be worthy of that legacy – to live life with a Tigger attitude, to work hard and keep dreaming, and to foster a love of literacy and literature in all we meet.

“I learned this, at least, by my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.” 
― Henry David Thoreau, Walden: Or, Life in the Woods