This week’s Press & Standard spotlight is on Carl Coffin, Director of Colleton County Memorial Library.
Mr. Coffin may not have been born in Colleton County, but he is from South Carolina. He was born in Columbia, and he and his family moved to Walterboro when he was in 11th grade. He attended and graduated from Walterboro High School. While in high school, Carl played trumpet for the Band of Blue. Coffin then attended USC Salkehatchie and then went to Charleston Southern University where he completed his undergraduate work in, surprisingly, history with a minor in english. At the time Carl thought he wanted to be a social studies teacher, but after doing some practicums he decided to change career directions. Coffin relates that a job opened up at the Charleston County Main Library. It was 1998 and they were transitioning from their location on King Street to Calhoun Street. He went into interview and they wanted to know when he could start. Carl said he could start the next day, and he got the job. He laughs and comments they needed someone to move boxes for them and that was his start into libraries. After they got settled in the new building, he helped the Charleston Library in their audio visual department. Coffin proceeded to get his Master’s in Library Sciences in 2008. The timing was perfect, because the director of the Colleton County Memorial Library was looking for an assistant who could come into and create a young adult program. Carl took those reins and that’s what he did for the first almost two years he worked at the library. Ultimately the director at the time retired and Mr. Coffin stepped into the role of Director. When asked what his favorite thing about running the library is, Carl comments, “It is really being able to give back to the community and working with a really creative staff. I love that, because we do so much here and the staff that we have here, it’s a real blessing that we have them for the community. They put on fantastic events. As far as directing the library, it is a lot of fun to me because the sky is the limit in library work.” He goes on to say that yes, the library has books and reference material, but there are also events that the community can come and participate in. For instance, coming up the library is going to host a Titanic themed event with activities and food. “Giving back to the community is really a big, big joy of mine. I love that.”
When Mr. Coffin is not at the library he has some varied interests. Kayaking is a passion he has. He loves to go to Santee River at Santee State Park. Sometimes while on the river in his kayak he will throw out a fishing line, but he loves being in his kayak and enjoying his time out on the water. During football season he will go catch a few games at USC. Coffin is very active in his church and he sometimes acts as a lay minister filling in the pulpit in churches if he needs to.
And of course, he loves to read. Carl’s favorite genre is fantasy, and he is a big Lord of the Rings fan. He resides firmly in the camp that the books are better than the movies, but he appreciates the movies for what they are and what they bring to the table.
Like a lot of GenX’ers, Coffin plays arcade/video games. He goes completely retro on his favorite game which is pinball. There is pinball arcade in Aiken call Radioactive Pinball Arcade and when he can he’ll ride to Aiken and play. However, Carl can sometimes be found with a video game controller in his hand. Even then, his tastes still go retro. He’s more of a PS2 kind of guy. He likes any game that has to do with NCAA college football, but his favorite is Star Wars The Force Unleashed. As far as his opinion on Star Wars in general, he feels the original movies released in the 1970’s are the best of the trilogies (I agree).
His family is near and dear to his heart. He and his wife Barbara have been married for almost 29 years and they have two adult children Dana and Matthew. Both kids got some gamer genes from their dad and they are currently studying in the IT field.
Thank you, Carl Coffin, for giving your time and your imagination for the betterment of Colleton County through your efforts at the Colleton County Memorial Library.
