It’s easy to make an immediate connection with Jace Turner. Readily available and open to engaging with anyone, he comes across as the most likable member at a family gathering. He’s excited to meet you and glad to be in your presence, ever respectful, caring, and attentive. He reminds me — and I mean this with the utmost admiration — of a young Mister Rogers. And that’s what makes Jace a natural fit for his job as the community relations librarian at the Santa Barbara Public Library.
Born in Santa Barbara, Jace was raised in a home near Peabody School that was first owned by his great grandmother. “When you’re from Santa Barbara, you grow up with the mountains and the ocean as your friends,” says the Santa Barbara High grad.
Instead of heading to college right away, Jace got a job at the library in 1994 as a page, the person responsible for shelving the books and keeping the building in order. “The pages are the backbone of the library,” says Jace. “I took a lot of pride being a page.” He did that job for one and a half years, during which time he met his future wife, Nadine, who was also working as a page and had been raised in Santa Barbara. He describes their courtship as “romance in the stacks.”