Virginia Brooks Manbeck, an "eclectic world traveler and librarian extraordinaire," died July 19 "while reading a book by Amor Towles," according to her obituary in the Brooklyn Eagle, which noted that she "dedicated much of her life's energy to the promotion of reading, in between traveling, travel planning and a relentless pursuit of knowledge and new experiences." She was 84.
After graduating from Penn State in 1962, Manbeck moved to New York City, where she worked as an editorial assistant at Houghton Mifflin. She married John B. Manbeck in 1964, and for their honeymoon "they flew to Europe, bought a Peugeot in Paris and drove through nine countries in nine weeks, thus beginning a lifelong wanderlust for travel with John," the obituary noted.
Their first child, Jessica, was born in Finland while her husband was fulfilling the obligations of a Fulbright teaching grant at Helsinki University and she worked as a book editor for the Finnish publisher Tammi. After returning to Brooklyn, she gave birth to their second child, Brooks, and earned a Master's in Library Science from Pratt Institute less than a month later. She later earned an MBA from Pace University, along with multiple educational certificates from Columbia University and the University of New Mexico.
As a staff member at the Brooklyn Public Library, Manbeck headed the Bookmobile service and became branch manager at several locations. After she retired, she was offered a position at the New York Public Library's Midtown Branch. The Manbecks split their time between an apartment in Brooklyn and a house in Pennsylvania, where she became a reference librarian at Eastern Monroe Public Library in Stroudsburg.
Manbeck also co-authored the book Consumer Health Information for Public Librarians, and "especially enjoyed trips inspired by books she read," her obituary noted. On one of those excursions, she, her husband, and their dog embarked on a 47-state tour of America, where she visited libraries and addressed librarians.