For 19 years, the Westerville History Museum at the Westerville Public Library has benefited from Bill Heaphy's loyal service as a volunteer. Since 2007, Bill (William Heaphy III) has cataloged countless items from the nationally recognized Anti-Saloon League collection and community-centered collection located in Westerville, Ohio. His experience as a former government relations and advisory lawyer provides him with an eye for detail, an interest in local history, and a special understanding of the museum’s historical legal documents.
Bill has provided approximately 7,200 hours of volunteer service. That is the equivalent of over 3 years of unpaid full-time employment to benefit the museum.
“It keeps your mind functionable, it’s substantive work, and the people are good to work with,” shared Bill during an interview with Westerville Magazine in 2025. “People should have resources available to trace their family, things like that. And knowing something about your own town, your government, I think that’s essential.”
He typically volunteers twice a week and rarely misses a day. His volunteer hours are spent sorting, assessing, organizing, documenting, and cataloguing collections, tasks that are essential to the museum's development of exhibits and events for the museum's 12,500 annual visitors. His dedication to the preservation of the history of our community is exceptional.
"The library and museum staff are grateful for his service and enjoy his company as a valued volunteer. We cannot imagine our museum workweek without Bill’s presence," shares Jackie Barton, Museum Manager.
Much of the museum’s collection consists of items belonging to the former national temperance organization called the Anti-Saloon League. When the Anti-Saloon League donated their headquarters and its contents to the Westerville Public Library in 1973, many of the artifacts were not cataloged on account of limited staff and space. Bill has diligently worked to identify and label tens of thousands of records to ensure they are available to researchers, publishers, and media producers across the globe. He has created detailed box-level inventories, organized items from chaotic storage boxes into themed collections, identified items for inclusion in exhibits, and identified individuals in numerous unlabeled items.
"It is easy to underestimate the importance of such behind-the-scenes work, but it is volunteers like Bill who make it possible for Westerville’s rich history to be preserved and shared with the world," shares Nina Thomas, former Museum Manager and current Director of Exhibits & Public Programs for the Delta Flight Museum.
"From organizing extensive archival donations to simply answering phones, he consistently stepped up to meet the museum’s needs without hesitation. In fact, the word 'volunteer' seems inadequate to describe the sheer volume and quality of work he contributed. Many of the projects Bill undertook were tedious and required meticulous attention to detail, research, and perseverance."
According to Beth Weinhardt, former Museum Manager and current President of the Westerville Historical Society, "Bill set a high standard for his work on cataloguing every item we had. He catalogued the collections of organizations like the Rotary, the American Legion, and American Association of University Women. His work to organize our historic material and aid researchers in finding items is invaluable. He freed staff members in the area to take on other projects like exhibits and programming. Bill’s dedication to the preservation of the history of our community is exceptional and his tireless efforts to improve access for all makes him an ideal candidate for this award."
During his acceptance speech, Bill shared that when he was a lawyer and had projects to work on over the weekend, he would come to the Westerville Library to work, which is why he decided to volunteer at the library upon his retirement. "You have a wonderful library here in town," he said.
The Westerville Public Library is grateful for the dedication and service that Bill has provided. If you happen to meet Bill during your next museum visit, please take a moment to thank him for his service.