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'Mr. Library' loved the idea of exploring, sharing ideas

By SCOTT TAYLOR HARTZELL
Published January 26, 2005

ST. PETERSBURG - Throughout his life, Thomas Dreier explored libraries for ideas.

"Public libraries are idea stores, idea banks, idea repositories," said the philanthropist, lecturer, author, editor and publicist. "Ideas are the most important element in personal or business success. Not money. Not machinery. Not buildings. Just ideas."

After arriving here in 1935, Dreier helped found the Friends of the Library locally and statewide. He later initiated the drive here for a new central library.

"He was Mr. Library," historian June Hurley Young said.

Dreier wrote numerous trade publications and nine books. He came to the aid of Florida Presbyterian (Eckerd) College when it was victimized by racism. He considered himself a vagabond and a pagan.

I'm "one who wanders seeking truth and beauty and who makes known his discoveries to others," said Dreier, who was paid weekly by Studebaker's president to share his business savvy over lunch.

At age 4 in 1888, Dreier met prejudice when a mob broke their farm's windows because his father was German and his mother was Irish. "Don't get up, you'll cut yourself," his mother told him that cold November night in Durand, Wis.

By high school Dreier had written for the Durand Weekly, discovered Ralph Waldo Emerson and forsook his desire for the priesthood.

Who's Who in America says that in 1902 Dreier began "a vagabond life . . . specialty salesman, bartender, mill hand, barber, waiter and foreman of a print shop."

Dreier then reported for three Wisconsin publications, including the Wisconsin State Journal. He edited the Sheldon School of Salesmanship's newspaper in Chicago. By 1910 he was the managing editor of a Boston magazine, Human Life.

While in Boston, he established the Thomas Dreier Service and wrote practical and philosophical publications for businesses.

"I thought of readers as fellow human beings, not customers," said Dreier, who grew the home-operated venture into a more than 20-client enterprise with a staff of seven.

After a three-week courtship in 1914, Dreier married "Snug" Blanche Nowell. She invested her millinery business gains and those of Dreier's writing, amassing a fortune. Her arthritis brought them here in 1935 to spend their winters at 1011 Brightwaters Blvd. on Snell Isle.

Dreier led nine others in 1947 to found the St. Petersburg Friends of the Library, a group dedicated to the development of a central library with branches.

"We are still functioning with (Dreier's) money," said today's organization president, Bethia Caffery.

Gov. LeRoy Collins appointed Dreier to the State Library Board in 1955. After Snug's death in 1960 and his marriage to Mary Baker one year later, Dreier was elected president of the Florida Library Association in 1963. Through it all, he had one prayer:

"Please make me lovable. Please make me useful."

During the Cold War as chairman of the Florida State Library Board, Dreier warned that the Soviet Union had 144,300 public libraries. "Brace yourself for a shock," he wrote. "(America has) only 25,000 (libraries). Only about 7,500 are public."

On a Sunday in February 1964, Dreier was praised for his 15 years of support during the dedication of St. Petersburg's first central library, at 3745 Ninth Ave. N. He gave $20,000 to create the Blanche Nowell Dreier Garden behind the $1-million structure.

When three Florida Presbyterian College affiliates attended the Freedom March on Selma in 1965, 12 supporters threatened to cease their financial aid. Dreier held a press conference at his home.

It's "academic blackmail," Dreier declared. "Gifts to colleges should be as free as the minds of the professors." He then gave $100,000 to FPC, doubling an amount he had given years before.

At age 87, Dreier's eyesight failed and he retired. He quit golfing and began biking nearly 15 miles daily - with a litter bag. "He picks up all the tin cans and all the bits of litter he finds," the press wrote.

In 1972, the St. Petersburg Times' Nelson Poynter presented Dreier with the Stick-of-Type Award for his outstanding contribution to St. Petersburg.

Four years later, at age 92, Dreier died in his home at 701 Brightwaters Blvd. NE.

Scott Taylor Hartzell can be reached at hartzel@msn.com

[Last modified January 26, 2005, 00:13:15]