**23 Years of Service. Transformational Leadership. A Lasting Legacy in Hampton Falls.**
The Hampton Falls Free Library is proud to announce that Linda Coe, Chair of the Library Board of Trustees, has been named the New Hampshire Library Trustees Association’s Lillian Edelmann Trustee of the Year, recognizing more than two decades of extraordinary public service and leadership. Since joining the Board in 2003, Coe has served four consecutive three-year terms as Chair and has helped guide some of the most consequential moments in the Library’s history. Most notably, she led the complex legal process that transformed the Hampton Falls Free Library from its 1901 corporation-in-trust structure into a modern municipal public library; an accomplishment that fundamentally shaped the Library’s ability to serve future generations. Her leadership has also driven critical infrastructure investments, HVAC and roofing projects, fire and life-safety improvements, Library Director recruitment, financial stewardship, town advocacy, and the development of HFFL’s first formal Strategic Plan.
In a community of fewer than 2,500 residents, Coe’s 23 years of sustained volunteer leadership, while simultaneously maintaining a professional career, represent an exceptional commitment to public service. Colleagues describe her as steady, knowledgeable, unflappable, and the person who can always be counted on to follow through. Whether advocating before town officials for essential funding, navigating major organizational change, mentoring Library leadership, or simply rolling up her sleeves to help with whatever needs to be done, Linda has quietly helped build the institution Hampton Falls relies on today. The Lillian Edelmann Trustee of the Year Award brings well-deserved statewide recognition to a remarkable record of service and to a volunteer whose work has left a permanent mark on both the Hampton Falls Free Library and the community it serves.
Join us on Thursday, October 22nd at 3 pm in the Library to recognize and celebrate Linda Coe’s award! Public invited!