Trustees’ Award

Each year the Trustees honor a community member who has given exceptional volunteer service to Forbes Library.

Congratulations to Richard Szlosek, the Forbes Library Gertrude P. Smith Trustees Award winners for 2025, for his exceptional volunteer service to Forbes Library.

Richard Szlosek is a lifelong Northampton resident and an alum of Amherst College and Western New England Law. He worked in the Szlosek family owned Imperial Bakery before becoming a family law attorney. He began writing after taking a Learning in Retirement course and wrote a column “slice of life” in the Daily Hampshire Gazette and is a frequent contributor to the Gazette and the Conz Street Chronicle. He has volunteered in the Coolidge Museum since 2010 as a tour guide, researcher, writer and board member.