For more than 40 years, Dr. Clifford Tillman has steered the public library with a steady hand, through small storms and many successes. Under-funded, the library nevertheless has moved into the ever-changing world of technology available to libraries today. As he surveys what goes on at Judge George W. Armstrong Library today, Tillman said he is both surprised and pleased.

&uot;After computers came along, I thought libraries would disappear,&uot; he said, describing his visions of people reading and researching on line and perhaps giving up books.

Thankfully, he was wrong, he said. &uot;I was absolutely amazed. Our circulation has increased. The library has been amplified, and we can do it any way you want it.&uot;

Today, the library offers online services that have brought it into the mainstream of most updated libraries in the country. The new automated, computerized equipment came along at just the right time, Tillman said. Hiring Susan Cassagne as director of the library system completed the package.

&uot;Nobody knows as much about library work as this lady,&uot; he said. &uot;We find her wanting in no area.&uot;

Tillman has worked with several head librarians through the years. And his experience with the library began not as a member of the board, where he has been chairman for many years, but with Friends of the Library.

A close friend urged him to get involved in the 1950s, when efforts were getting under way to build a new library. &uot;We found out very quickly that people didn’t know what libraries are for,&uot; Tillman said. Many residents opposed building a new library because of the money involved. Yet the old library housed in Memorial Hall on South Pearl Street was woefully inadequate.

Letters to the newspaper went back and forth. &uot;The antagonists thought it was silly to build a new library,&uot; Tillman said. &uot;Finally, I said at a Friends meeting we need to attack this not from ‘do we need a new library’ but ‘where are we going to put a new library.’&uot;

It worked. &uot;That was the one political thing I’ve ever done,&uot; he said. With a focus on location, he tried another political ploy that worked. An avid environmentalist, he nevertheless suggested a library be built in Memorial Park, where old oak trees would have to be cut down to make room for a building.

Again, it worked. The focus then was on location, and the outcry over cutting down trees began.

Meanwhile, the property on the corner of Commerce and Washington streets, where the library ultimately was built, became the behind-the-scenes project of one of the board members, Gordon Gulmon, who knew the Armstrong family owned the land.

The family donated the land, and the library bore the name of the judge.

Tillman joined the library trustees in 1962. He is not sure how long he has been president but knows &uot;it’s been a long time.&uot;

&uot;I have a desire to make whatever I do come out right,&uot; he said. &uot;And I try not to let emotions interfere with decision making.

&uot;We have been handicapped at the library because of money. We haven’t gone anywhere near where we ought to have gone. I wish we could be twice this size.&uot;

In a dream, he imagines a swap with AmSouth Bank, getting the large building at the corner of Pearl and Franklin streets and giving the bank the library building. &uot;That would require a great deal of generosity,&uot; he said.

The library, for many years funded both by the city and the county, now receives funds only from the city.

Still, progress continues, and the hiring of Susan Cassagne &uot;has added a new spark.&uot;

Serving a library does not necessarily require incessant reading, but Tillman believes a love of the written word can help.

Most of his reading today is in the area of natural history, where his interests lie. However, his fascination with literature and writing dates to his childhood.

At Natchez High School, he was editor of the Echoes school newspaper and wrote sports for The Natchez Democrat.

At Vanderbilt University, where he completed undergraduate and medical school, he joined the Calumet Club, a literary society, and became its president &045; highly unlikely for a pre-medical student.

&uot;To get into creative writing was difficult. I was in such a paradoxical situation to be in pre-med but interested in writing,&uot; he said. He approached the venerable poet

Donald Davidson, the only one who could give permission for Tillman to take Davidson’s creative writing class.

&uot;He told me ‘no pre-med has ever done this,’&uot; Tillman said. &uot;I said, ‘but you don’t know me, and I don’t think that’s fair. I want to take creative writing and I want to take it from you.’&uot;

Davidson gave Tillman an assignment to write overnight. Tillman completed it, took it to the teacher and was admitted into the class.

Tillman graduated No. 1 in his medical school class and takes some pride in that. But he also appreciates that opportunity he had to study under Davidson.

Tillman believes the library plays a big role in educating its patrons but also in helping in times of economic downturn. &uot;If you’re illiterate, you don’t go anywhere today,&uot; he said. &uot;And this community has been geared to labor jobs, and that’s changing.&uot;

At 84, Tillman, who has practiced medicine as an internist and cardiologist in Natchez since 1951, said he can imagine continuing in the library chairman position another couple of years.

&uot;I have enjoyed the library. We have a good board, and I run the board in a very relaxed way.&uot;

Serving the library has been a good way for him to make a civic contribution to the community, he said. &uot;I think everybody owes the community. You can pick out what you do, but you owe somebody something,&uot; he said. &uot;The reward of the library job, if you believe in education, is unequal to anything I can think of.&uot;