He hushed people, once. While working on the second floor of the Westminster Seminary Library, he dropped some books, which made a terrible racket. Everyone was startled and looked up. And Tom Reid elocuted, “Shhh!”

Mr. Reid is an unintentional librarian. His brother and sister, unintentionally and intentionally, are librarians, too. Brother-in-law Rick is also a librarian, meaning that all of the Reid siblings comprise a “catalog” of librarians, as punners might say.

Currently, Professor Tom Reid serves as librarian, registrar, and instructor at the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. He accidentally fell into librarian work after being claimed by Christ.

Pastoring

Mr. Reid grew up in a mainline Presbyterian church in Chicago. The befuddlement of their teaching cleared away when Reid’s high school friends won him to Christ. Prompted to find a new denomination, Reid eventually joined an Orthodox Presbyterian Church, grew in Christ, and went to Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, Pa., to study theology.

He intended to become a pastor. In the fall of his first year, he heard Eugene Boyer, a missionary to France, speak in chapel. Later, he traveled to France for a six-week study trip with Dr. Edmund Clowney and Dr. Philip Edgcumbe Hughes to the then-new Reformed Seminary at Aix-en-Provence. Afterward, Reid altered his goal somewhat: he aimed to be a pastor or missionary in France.

To attain that goal, he needed to raise the funds to go to France. Thus, when Librarian Arthur Kuschke recruited Reid to work as his assistant in the Westminster library, Reid eventually accepted. Kuschke must have sensed the latent librarian gene or ability that thereafter emerged.

Falling into Librarian Work

Reid’s sister, Bonnie, was the only one of the siblings who originally set out to become a librarian. She is a reference librarian at a public library in suburban Chicago, working to connect library patrons to resources in the library or accessible through the library. Bonnie also married a librarian. A public reference librarian. Whom she met a library conference. “If you can’t find what you’re looking for,” said Mr. Reid, “they are the people to ask.”

Reid’s brother “backed into” librarian work. Originally trained in art history, Jim worked for a while at the Graduate School of Design Library at Harvard University, where he had a very hands-on job doing repair work: repairing maps, rebinding, and so forth.

Now, Reid’s brother is associate director of the Boston Athenæum, a private library so old and elite it retains the Latin “æ.” Jim still does some of the repair work—but he also wears a three-piece suit and takes little old ladies out to lunch to ask for multimillion dollar donations. “For a former hippie like him, it’s kind of funny.”

How It Happened

Reid told me how he originally backed into librarian work: “In the spring of my senior year at Westminster Seminar, I was walking past the library, when the Librarian Arthur Kuschke drove past, slammed on his brakes, backed up, rolled down the window, and said, ‘Come and see me tomorrow in the library.’ He rolled the window back up and drove off. He was…somewhat unique, to say the least.

“I went in fearing what I had done wrong. Had I lost something, or offended him? I didn’t know. He was looking for an assistant, since his assistant’s husband was graduating and they were leaving, so he wanted to know if I would be interested in being his assistant. And I had never thought about it, ever. So I prayed about it and thought about it, and two weeks later, I still didn’t have any real peace about it. He called me up on the phone and said, ‘Come in and see me,’ so I went in and he offered me the position, because everyone else had turned him down. And I eventually took it.”

Over Island and Sea

After working in the Westminster library for over a year, Reid used his savings to travel to Aix-en-Provence, where he would study and get his Th.M. Shortly after his arrival in France, Reid was invited to breakfast with Prof. Paul and Alison Wells, who promised he would get to meet “three Irish Presbyterians.”

Those “Irish Presbyterians” turned out to be Reformed Presbyterians Pastor Norman McCune, Pastor Ted Donnelley, and a single woman who came as their translator. Breakfast was the most important meal that day, for as a result of that meal, Reid’s growing interest in pastoring, France, and RPs coalesced: the mission board of the Irish and Scottish RP churches called Reid to be a missionary in France.

Also in France, Reid met his wife, Geneviève. “She is French, and once I met her, my French really improved.” Immediately after they married, they moved to Ireland while waiting for the missionary project to begin.

In Ireland, Reid served as an assistant to Pastor Ted Donnelly and as supply for Lisburn RPC. The Irish and Scottish RP churches delayed the missionary project and advised Reid to seek a call, which Reid received from Cree­vagh RPC, Ireland.

In Ireland, he also tried to work one day at week at the Reformed Theological College…as a librarian.

A Librarian with a Library Degree

After three years as pastor at Creevagh, Reid’s health broke down, and his doctor ordered a complete change. Since the delay of mission work in France proved to be indefinite, Reid and his family came to the United States, to Pittsburgh, Pa. Reid enrolled in the University of Pittsburgh to receive his Master of Library Science, the degree most librarians hold. Library work, though, did not have an exclusive hold on him. He continued to switch between pastoring and library work.

Reid took a call as a librarian at the Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) in Jackson, Miss. Then he briefly pastored at Quinter, Kan., RPC, returned to RTS in Jackson, and pastored in what is now Shelter (Edmonton, Alb.) RPC in Canada after the president of RTS cleared out the senior staff members.

Less than a year after the Reids moved to Canada, the board of the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) in Pittsburgh, Pa., extended a call. Reid was offered a position as a librarian and registrar, plus the opportunity to teach a little in church history. He took the position in 1996 and has remained at RPTS ever since.

Fitting in God’s Economy

Although he initially set out to be a pastor, Reid said, “In the end, I’ve done more library work than pastoring.” In God’s economy, the combination of callings has been put to good use. His dual calling helps him to maintain the corporate culture at RPTS, where the slogan is “Study under Pastors.”

It also helps him to fit in with his family, outsiders might suppose. His siblings joke that, when they were kids and had nothing to do, their family often piled into the car and went to the public library. “I don’t know how often that really happened,” mused Reid, “but it did happen some.” When together, the four siblings (in-law included) don’t talk much about libraries. “We’re on vacation, and we don’t want to be reminded of our daily work so much.”

In June, Reid reached his 19th anniversary as librarian and registrar at RPTS.

Rebecca is editorial assistant for the RP Witness. She is the daughter of a librarian.