Watertown’s Daniel Pritchard announced his candidacy for Board of Library Trustees in November’s Town Election.
Pritchard sent out the following press release:
Writer, editor, and nonprofit professional Daniel E. Pritchard is a first-time political candidate running to join the Board of Trustees of the Watertown Free Public Library.
Raised in Quincy, MA, Pritchard learned the values of hard work, common decency, and public service from his single mother, who also instilled a love of libraries that would set the trajectory of his life.
“The library was a home away from home,” he remembers. “I read everything — fantasy, biography, crime, poetry, the classics. The library was my window to the wider world.”
A graduate cum laude of Boston College, Pritchard has pursued a successful career in the business of letters. He has held marketing, communications, and development roles at some of Boston’s leading literary institutions and has served on the boards of several nonprofits. In 2009, Pritchard also founded The Critical Flame, an online journal of literary nonfiction for which he continues to serve as editor-in-chief. His own prose, poetry, and translations are published regularly as well.
“Public libraries have played a crucial role in my life,” Pritchard says. “Without a great public library, I don’t know if I would have attended college. I certainly wouldn’t be a writer and editor today. That’s one reason I want to serve as a trustee of the Watertown Free Public Library: to help inspire the next generation.”
As a trustee, Pritchard plans to maintain the Watertown Free Public Library’s good fiscal health while ensuring that it serves every member of Watertown’s diverse community. A modern library, he says, encourages the free exchange of cultures and ideas through books and newspapers as well as public computers, meeting spaces, lectures, and civic resources.
“A well-educated public is vital to our democracy, and that’s why libraries matter so much. You spend 16 years going to school, and spend the next 60 years going to a public library.”
Pritchard and his wife, Katy, live in Watertown’s East End with their daughter.
To find out more about Daniel E. Pritchard visit his website, PritchardForWatertown.com, or follow his campaign on Facebook.