The board of directors of the Seminary Co-op Bookstores, Chicago, Ill., has named Kevin Bendle its new executive director. Since July 2024, Daniel Y. Mayer had been serving as interim executive director after Jeff Deutsch stepped down from the position in May of last year.
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On behalf of the board, chair Katie Parsons said that Bendle "has 24 years of experience in bookselling and managing bookstores, primarily with a series of Barnes & Noble University bookstores. He was, among other things, manager of the University of Chicago B&N in Hyde Park and at the Gleacher Center for most of those 24 years. Kevin knows our stores well and we are certain of his commitment to maintaining their unique character and mission for both the University and the wider South Side Community.... We look forward to his leadership ensuring that the Seminary Co-op and 57th Street Books will continue to serve our communities for another 65 years."
"I am excited to join the Seminary Co-op Bookstores team, and am humbled to steward these cultural institutions," Bendle said. "I look forward to meeting you in the stacks!"
Regarding his prior experience, Bendle told the Hyde Park Herald: "I always saw that our relationship at these locations were different than just a corporate bookstore, because we served a community we interacted with on an ongoing, regular basis. It was a bookstore that actually was an entwined part of the campus community."
Bendle added that the Co-op is "a place for intellectual inquiry, community events and this curated assortment of books. And that will not change. What will change is that there will be a next generation of readers coming up. So, the question is, how do we embrace that, and how do we welcome them in?"
He also noted that his first two weeks at the Seminary Co-op have reaffirmed why he took the job: "It's been wonderful to meet people in the community and meet the booksellers. I'm very excited for our future."