When he was chosen to head the Essex Library, executive director Richard Conroy told the board of trustees that his new position would be his last job. Now, 11 years later, he is retiring at the end of June.

“It seems like the right time; you have to have room for new ideas and new insights. That’s important for the profession,” he said.

The Essex Library will honor Conroy with a reception on Saturday, June 8 from 4 to 6 p.m. at the library. Patrons are welcome to stop by and wish him well.

Conroy admitted that he has had some second thought about his decision to retire.

“There are times when I am ambivalent, but a number of factors make this the right time. There are some personal issues, and the fact that I am 66 and still in good health and I don’t want to be hanging around too long,” he said.

Deborah Smith, selected from some 20 applicants from throughout the country, will take over as the new executive director of the Essex Library Association on the first of July.

It is the people that Conroy said he will miss the most, both the staff and the patrons he has gotten to know over the years.

“You see people every day; people come in every week, patrons and volunteers. That’s what I will miss,” he said.

He is particularly proud of the staff development that has taken places with library employees stepping up to take new responsibilities.

“I encouraged people to take chances. I told them mistakes were okay. Try to figure it out and if it doesn’t work, do it differently,” he said.

Although it is a small institution, the Essex Library has the highest per capita attendance at its programs of any library in Middlesex County. Statewide it has the third largest per capita program audience and material circulation at the library is double the state average.

When Conroy took over in 2008, the library faced challenging financial times as a result of the stock market collapse and ensuing recession. Conroy had to cut back library hours, including closing completely on Sunday; cut staff hours; eliminate one part-time position; and take a $5,000 pay cut himself.

According to Conroy, it took about two years to get the library back on track.

“Progress has been steadily made since then, but we still run on a very tight budget,” he said.

Now, he added, some attention has to be paid to refurbishing the library building itself.

“The building is coming up on 13 years old and it has lost its new car smell,” he said. “There are things that need redoing and painting; the carpet needs refreshing.”

Among the current challenges the library faces is how to adapt to new technology on a limited budget.

“We have to stay abreast of technology and understand how we can incorporate things or why we should not,” he said. “That will be a challenge for my successor.”

He dismissed the idea that technology will make libraries themselves obsolete. Libraries, he pointed out, keep evolving.

“In 100 years, libraries won’t look like this, but there will be libraries,” he said.

Conroy didn’t begin his professional life as a librarian. After college, he found work as an administrator in a trucking company.

“I kind of stumbled into it. I knew it was a temporary gig, even though it lasted 25 years,” he said. “I knew my life’s work was something else, but I had a mortgage, car payments, and children to be launched.”

When he found he could take courses for a master’s degree in library service online, Conroy began the process of career change.

“It was a leap of faith,” he admitted.

He worked at libraries in Old Lyme and Stratford before coming to Essex as executive director.

In the process, he admitted to a short career detour with his wife Wendy.

“We owned a bed and breakfast in Freeport, Maine, for two years, but then came to our senses,” he said.

As he looks back on his tenure at the Essex Library, Conroy called the position a dream job.

“It was the best job I ever had in my entire life,” he said.

Still, there will be some immediate benefits to retirement.

“I haven’t had a summer off in 40 years,” Conroy said.

And what’s more, he may even have time now to do what library directors encourage everybody else to do: Read a book.