Library board president receives posthumous honors

OAKLAND — Throughout his life, Col. Corbin Sarchet III took great pride in holding library card No. 1 at West Oaks Library in Ocoee. He was on the Orange County Library Board when it started the numbered card system, and he was known for checking out more books than just about any other patron.

Sarchet was deeply involved at West Oaks Library, which was his home branch. Although he died Feb. 7, 2015, at age 83, he will not be forgotten there. The library board dedicated a meeting room to Sarchet last week and installed a plaque in his memory. 

“I’m sure if he (were) here right now, he would be very pleased and honored by this,” Sarchet’s son, Byron Sarchet, said at the dedication ceremony. 

Corbin Sarchet was the true definition of a bookworm. Monday through Thursday nights were dedicated to various community boards and organizations, but Friday nights were set aside for reading.

“He was a very talented man,” Byron Sarchet said about his father. “With his left hand, he could hold a book and flip the page with his thumb, and with his right hand, he could take a fun-sized Snickers, pinch it open and eat it.”

By the end of the night, there would be a stack of finished books and empty Snickers wrappers at Corbin Sarchet’s side.

He was a speed reader with a photographic memory. For his birthday and holidays, his son and daughter would write verbose cards to him, packing in as many words as possible. They would let him glance at a card for just a second and then take them away — and he would have memorized the entire message inside.

With such an intense love of reading, it was only fitting that Corbin Sarchet would serve the library board from 1979 to 1987, and again from 1993 to 2002. He was president for some of those years.

Sarchet was involved with current library director and CEO Mary Anne Hodel’s hiring. She promised him she would stay in her position long-term, and she has kept that promise.

“He was an excellent board president and board member,” Hodel said. “He was much beloved by staff.”

During his terms, Sarchet pushed for an increase of technology-focused classes at the county’s libraries. Now, Orange County libraries have more technological classes than any other library system in Florida, Hodel said.

Sarchet also headed up efforts to add branches to the Orange County Library System. The Alafaya, South Creek, West Oaks and Winter Garden branches opened under his leadership. He led the team that expanded and renovated the downtown Orlando location to four times its size. 

Sarchet was active in a number of other community positions in addition to those he held with the library system.

He was a decorated U.S. Army officer and longtime civic activist. After 33 years in the military, he moved to Orlando, where he worked as a commercial real-estate broker.

He served on the Downtown Development Board and was named Downtowner of the Year in 1982. As an advocate for education, he served on the boards of the Miss Orlando Scholarship Pageant and Miss America’s Outstanding Teen. For the last 40 years of his life, he was in leadership at Park Lake Presbyterian Church.

Sarchet spent more than 50 years in leadership with the Boy Scouts of America and served for a time as president of the Central Florida Council.

Bill Cowles, Orange County’s current supervisor of elections, worked with Sarchet through the Boy Scouts. 

“The Scout oath and law talks about duty to God and country,” Cowles said. “There’s no better man that fit that example (than Sarchet).” 

Cowles said the West Oaks Library is the second most active early-voting site in the county. The last paying job Sarchet held in his life was as an assistant for early voting. 

“He’s now with all the great scouters that he worked with, in the clouds above,” Cowles said.  “And they’re building fires and talking scouting and sharing their memories.” 

Contact Catherine Sinclair at [email protected].