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Heather Logan gives several reasons for her September retirement as director of the Cundy’s Harbor Library. Her multiple responses reflect who she is, who she has been and her excitement about what might come next.
“In the past six years I have met all of my goals,” said Logan, who returned to Maine in 2019 after 30 years living and working in Utah. “I’m good at going in and fixing a mess. When the system is up and running, I move on.”
The “mess” at the library included a building so decayed that Logan once fell through the rotted deck. The library also lacked a serviceable catalog system, a problem Logan tackled with relentless calls to the Maine State Library for consultation and funding.
Before Logan realized the depth of the issues, she asked herself, “How hard could this be?”
She soon found out, as she enlisted the services of a half-dozen local contractors to save a building she described as “falling down.” The back section of the library, she said, “was 99% rot.”
Harpswell Town Administrator Kristi Eiane remembers how Logan met the challenge. The town secured two grants for a total of $116,400 to renovate the private library.
“As the library’s liaison with town staff, Heather worked tirelessly within the parameters of the grant to see the vision through of updating the building, its systems, the site and accessibility to enhance a community space that would serve the public well into the future,” Eiane said.
Lynn Kilchenstein, secretary of the library’s board, mentioned that Logan also worked with former board President Linda Prybylo to build a new deck and add accessible parking.
“These projects were complex, given the age of the building, and while the library will need continuous attention, it is now an engaging, welcoming space,” Kilchenstein said. “More recently, Heather has been overseeing the curating and modernizing of our book collection, as well as supporting our numerous activities.”
Logan also secured grants to replace windows, install heat pumps and buy books. She introduced story walks on local trails, patterned after a program in Vermont. She and co-worker David Perrier worked together to get discounted van service from the Maine State Library, improving patrons’ access to the collections of libraries throughout the state.
The 2020 pandemic added unprecedented complications shortly after Logan became library director. Conventional wisdom at the time held that COVID-19 could be spread by touching library books, so every book in the library was taken outside, put under a tent and treated, Logan said.
Despite the challenges, Logan loved coming home to Maine, where she has a wide network of friends from her early years.
Logan was born and raised in the area of Burlington, Vermont, where she spent much of her childhood skiing. Later, her family moved to Maine. She attended Brunswick High School before studying speech pathology and philosophy at the University of Vermont and Emerson College.
She remembers her late father, former Maine Education Commissioner William Logan, saying, “Heather, nobody is going to hire Socrates.”
Logan moved to Utah “to be a ski bum,” she said, after an economic downturn in the 1980s led to massive layoffs for big employers back east. She had a lot of company — a large group of college friends relocating to search for more open space, outdoor recreation and economic opportunity.
She earned a degree in special education at Utah State University and went on to serve as assistant special education director for a large school district. Her three decades in Utah deepened her respect for her home state.
Logan’s primary reason for coming home was to take care of her ailing mother, Peggy Logan, who died in 2025 at the age of 100. The underlying reason — one that ensured she wasn’t going to look in the rearview mirror — was aggressive commercial development that changed Utah’s culture as she had known it.
It was no accident that one of the first decisions Logan made, upon returning home in 2019, was to join the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust. The bond that Mainers have with their land is reflected in their actions as well as their words, she said.
“The people of Maine have always been about sustainability,” she said. She sees that value supported by strong local input on public policy decisions regarding conservation and environmental protection. “These are the reasons I want to be here.”
“Change will come to Maine,” she said. “But Maine is very united about maintaining the environmental character.”
In retirement, Logan plans to travel and continue contributing to the community.
“I have a skill set,” she said. “I had no library degree. You know, you don’t need a library degree to renovate a building.”
She looks forward to taking courses at Midcoast Senior College and spending time with the Association of Bowdoin Friends and Bailey Island’s Mingo Club. She will continue her involvement with Harpswell Aging at Home and the Harpswell Heritage Land Trust. She wants to attend a writers retreat with friends in Utah. And she’s particularly excited about a recent purchase.
“With my neighbor, we bought a loom!” she said. “We are taking lessons from an incredible local weaver.”
Logan is happy to be home.
“The bond with this community is unique because the people with whom you grew up quickly revitalize and integrate you back here,” she said. “The human ecology of this community is amazing.”
