LIBRARY LEADER: Robert Staples, the director of the Princeton Public Library for more than two decades, died last October. His former co-workers, who only learned recently of his death, remember him fondly.

A rememberance for Robert H. Staples — who died at the age of 80 — that ran in the Asbury Park Press on October 26, 2011, described him simply as a native of Toms River and a veteran of the U.S. Army. “He will be sadly missed by his close and dear friends,” the brief notice read. But there was no mention of Mr. Staples’ 23-year tenure as the director of Princeton Public Library.

Many former colleagues of Mr. Staples, who died in Lakewood of pancreatic cancer on October 23, were shocked when they learned of his passing several weeks later. But in retrospect, they were not surprised that his obituary was so brief.

“When our Christmas letter to Bob was returned marked ‘Deceased,’ we were stunned,” wrote former library employee Carol Bennett in a remembrance of Mr. Staples. “We went online and found Bob’s memorial site had already closed … and no one who’d written anything on it seemed to know he’d been a librarian, much less director of the Princeton Public Library. That figured. In retirement, Bob likely spoke as little about himself as he had when we all knew him.”

Ms. Bennett and other friends of Mr. Staples have arranged to have the site re-opened for another year, hoping others will record their memories of “… this really good man,” she writes, “who played a quiet and effective role in the steady improvement of Princeton’s community.”

Mr. Staples came to Princeton at the time that the “new” library on the corner of Witherspoon and Wiggins streets, which has since been replaced by the current building on the same footprint, was being designed. “Bob worked very closely with the architect, Thaddeus Longstreth,” recalls Eric Greenfeldt, who was hired by Mr. Staples in 1973 and retired as assistant director in 2004. “He had been, I believe, the assistant director at the library in Summit, and was very involved with the building campaign there,” Mr. Greenfeldt continues. “So he was an ideal candidate.”

The library was moving from its original location at Bainbridge House on Nassau Street, which was “so full that books could literally fall on your head,” recalls Ms. Bennett. “Many were shelved over doorways.”

Dudley Carlson, the library’s longtime children’s librarian who now lives in California, remembers Mr. Staples as a strong advocate of growth. “Bob’s legacy surely encompasses two huge landmarks,” she wrote in an email “He oversaw the building of the first ‘new’ library on Witherspoon Street, Thaddeus Longstreth’s lovely, airy place with its graceful floating staircase, and the move from Bainbridge House to that new space in the late ’60s. When I came to Princeton in 1973, it was a wonderful place to work but it was already beginning to fill up. The beginning of the use of computers, which Bob encouraged, quickly made the crowding an urgent issue, and even when I first arrived, he pointed to the parking lot and indicated ‘where the new addition will go.’”

Mr. Greenfeldt recalls Mr. Staples as enthusiastic about the 2005 redesign of the library by Nicholas Garrison of Hillier Architecture. “I think he was really impressed by the size, the design, and certainly the plan for services here, as well as the way it fit into the downtown,” he says. “He was also very impressed by how well the board of trustees, Leslie Burger [director since 1999] and political leaders in the Borough and Township all worked together to make it happen.”

Though described by some as quiet and reserved, Mr. Staples was affable and devoted to his friends, they recall. “Bob was always up,” wrote Ms. Bennett, whom he hired in 1964. “If he didn’t like something we or a patron was doing, he’d ‘harrumph’ but with a smile. I don’t think he knew how to frown. The staff was virtually all female, and, to avoid calling any of us by the wrong name, Bob called us all ‘Gladys.’ Or, on occasion, ‘Agnes.’”

Ms. Carlson describes Mr. Staples as a mentor and a great friend. “He was a real reader, interested not only in fiction but in history, the arts, the world,” she wrote. “He loved the theater, and regaled us on Mondays with accounts of plays or films seen on the weekend.”

Mr. Staples encouraged the development of the Friends of Princeton Public Library, “particularly in the grim days in the 1970s when the economy contracted and the governing bodies were forced to curtail budgets severely,” wrote Ms. Carlson. “The Friends’ organization made it possible for the library to continue buying books, present programs, and begin to use computers, by strengthening their fundraising and outreach capabilities. Bob was the quiet ‘gardener’ behind the scenes, building relationships within the organization and with potential donors.”

A good correspondent, Mr. Staples kept in touch with old friends for years after leaving Princeton. “Bob would send cards on holidays: Halloween, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day, even Mothers’s Day,” wrote Ms. Bennett, “not just at Christmas. [He took advantage of ]any excuse to note Princeton developments: the 100th anniversary of the library, the closing of Lahiere’s restaurant where we used to celebrate staff retirements and other farewells.”

Mr. Staples encouraged his staff to join professional organizations and take on new responsibilities. “I think all of us who worked with him found him willing to support any new idea for which we could make a good case,” Ms. Carlson wrote. “He cared about, and cared for, his staff. When a staff member was ill, Bob kept a careful eye on progress and offered support. In snowstorms or other bad weather he made sure that the first people to leave work were those with the longest or most difficult drives.”

Ms. Bennett sums it up: “Bob was a heck of a nice guy and a lot of fun,” she wrote. “He was also a very important link in the development of what I believe to be the best public library in the country.”