A Dauphin County library branch has a new name honoring a renowned Harrisburg couple.
During a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Monday, the Kline Library at 530 S. 29th St. in Harrisburg was renamed the George & Hettie Love Memorial Library.
The ceremony included library and community officials and the couple’s children, George and Karen Love.
It is the first library in the county named after African Americans.
“This library named in their honor in Dauphin County is such a honor, but it is going to be such a far-reaching gift to the children that come after,” said Karen Love.
She noted her parents lived long lives, traveled frequently and made far-reaching impacts on their communities.
George and Hettie Love were educators and civil rights activists who moved from Philadelphia to Harrisburg in 1971.
George received his bachelor’s, master’s, and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania and became the first African-American employed as a high school teacher in the Philadelphia school system.
In Harrisburg he assumed the role of assistant commissioner for Basic Education at the Pennsylvania Department of Education, supervising the desegregation of schools.
Hettie grew up in segregated Jacksonville, Florida, and graduated from Fisk University in Nashville.
In 1947, she became the first Black woman to earn an MBA from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Her accomplishment inspired the book “Hettie Simmons Love: Penn Pioneer,” by Amani Bowman.
“She persevered. She got her education and then she and my father together were such a team in terms of making sure that children here got those opportunities,” Karen Love said.
George died at 90 in 2014 and Hettie in 2023 eight months after turning 100.
The library’s name change was spearheaded by board member Ruby Doub who proposed the idea 13 months ago.
“I am elated today. I can’t even tell you,” Doub said.
Calling Doub’s vision bold, library Board President Rev. Yvette Davis said she wanted to make sure the library was named after not only people of color, but people who have been rooted in the community for decades.
“That’s the only way the transformation happens is through big vision,” Davis said. “So we are all so grateful for that bold articulated vision.”
The library branch opened in 1967 and is part of the Dauphin County Library System.
