Ormond Stone - Fairfax County Public Library

Fairfax County Public Library

He retired on a stipend from the Carnegie Foundation in 1912 to a 30-acre (120,000 m2) farm in Centreville, Virginia. Stone attended a local, little stone Methodist church on Braddock Road, now known as the Church of the Ascension, Anglican. His wife died in 1914 and he later married Mary Florence Brennan of Lansing, Michigan. He brought Mary back to Centreville along with her two sisters Grace and Elizabeth. He continued to be active in the educational, religious and social problems of his local community and the state.

He served as Vice President of the Virginia State Teachers' Association, and was a leader in the movement to improve Virginia's public school system (in 1991, an Ormond Stone Middle School was opened in Fairfax County to honor his work).

In November 1929, Professor Stone and his friend, lawyer Thomas Keith approached the Fairfax County Board of Supervisors to request space to begin a library. The County provided no funds, but a small space in an old office in the courthouse and it was the first step in the eventual establishment of the Fairfax County Public Library System. Stone spent much of his last years gathering and organizing donated books for this small library.

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