BRISTOL — One is a retired minister and the other a retired elementary school teacher, but two local women — both named Shirley — have helped make a difference for many years serving on the Bristol Public Library board.

Shirley Price, who served 22 years on the seven-member board, and Shirley Stoops-Frantz, who served 19 years on the board, were honored this week at a gathering at the library by library staff and community members. The two are done with their time on the board Dec. 31.

Price said she enjoyed being on the library board because of her interaction with the community and the library staff. She said when she was a second-grade teacher at the school located next to the library, the classes would walk to the library.

“There was a close connection between the library and the school. It was wonderful to have that interaction,” Price said.

After she retired, the library board approached Price to see if she would like to serve on it.

Her brother Roger French, a retired fire chief, served on the board.

“I knew what I was getting into,” Price said

Stoops-Frantz joked that she and Price were the “two Shirleys known as the dynamic duo.”

She said she was working across the street from the library at Bristol Community Church.

“I was just across the road and would come to the library and spend time here. I fell in love with the library. After I retired, they hired me to be a clerk and help with putting books away, cleaning up and checking books in and out,” Stoops-Frantz said.

At the time, Kathy Hawkins was chairwoman of the library board and asked Stoops-Frantz to serve. She started on the board in 2006.

Stoops-Frantz said the board holds monthly meetings and depending on what was going on at the library, the would meet more than once.

Price said the board would work with the library staff on fulfilling the library’s needs and overseeing the staff and library budget. The two said the library board worked with township fiscal officer Dolly Mansfield.

Mansfield said the two women have given decades of service not only to the library, but the Bristol community as a whole.

“We were both committed to the future of this library. There were trying times because of the state funding and we went to a lot of district meetings to duke it out on getting money for the libraries. We went through the process every year. We were the smallest funded library in the county,” Stoops-Frantz said.

Stoops-Frantz said she served as president in 2012 and Price and she were on the board together for many years.

Price served as a secretary on the board. The two then reversed roles.

Library Manager D’Lynn Johnson, who has served 28 years, said the two women have been great to work with over the years.

“They both worked hard as board members and helped the library get through some hard times,” Johnson said, such as state budget cuts to libraries, building needs, levy passages and the coronavirus pandemic.

The library receives 4.7% of state library funding, while larger libraries get more than 50%.

Mansfield said the library gets $50,000 in property taxes and $370,000 in public library funds. Johnson said the Warren-Trumbull County Public Library gets $7 million.

Johnson said she will be sorry to see the two board members step down, but appreciates their dedicated service.

“They will be hard to replace,” she said.

Gabe Illes, incoming board president, said his children had Price as a teacher in school and he was a scout leader at Stoops-Frantz’s church.

“I have known both of them for quite a while. They are good to work with and both work hard and are diligent,” Illes said.

Johnson said plans are to get a plaque hung at the library of the board members’ names and the years that each served.

While the two may no longer be on the board in 2026, they plan to continue coming to the library.

“We will still be patrons,” Stoops-Frantz said.

The public can drop off cards for Price and Stoops-Frantz in a basket at the circulation desk.