Florence Poris, 100, of Harrington Park passed away on December 19, 2025, with grace and dignity in the presence of family. Florence lived in Haworth for 68 years before moving to Allegro, a senior living residence in Harrington Park, in 2021. She served as the Haworth Public School's K-thru-8 librarian from 1968 to 2001 and on the public library board from forever until she moved out of the borough. The Haworth Municipal Library dedicated its new children's wing to her when it opened in 2015.

A voracious reader called Grandma Book by her eight grandchildren, Florence started generations of Haworth school children on the path to becoming lifetime readers. Hers was not just a room in the old gymnasium filled with shelves groaning with books but also a lively arena of meet-and greets and readings by an endless stream of nationally known children's book authors she corralled, as well as a place where topical themes explored by books were read and discussed and kids lounged on the floor to read whenever they could. Students also learned the mechanics of how a library operates. Florence had a keen sense of each student's interests and suggested books accordingly, all in an effort to encourage reading. There was no shushing in her library!

Born in Brooklyn on May 29, 1925, and raised in nearby suburban Lawrence on Long Island, Florence graduated with a B.A from New York University in 1946, after which she worked as the secretary for the famed historian Garret Mattingly, then at Cooper Union. That year she also met George Poris, a veteran and a student at Columbia. They married in 1947 and stayed that way for a day shy of 65 years, when George died in 2012. They lived in New York City until 1953, when they and their 2-year-old son Jim moved to Haworth.

There she became involved in Democratic Party politics, over the years hosting congressmen at her home to meet other women in the area and working on various campaigns, including John F. Kennedy's, which gained her an appreciative letter from the new president after the 1960 election. When the Haworth school librarian left in the mid-60s, Florence and one of her friends volunteered to fill post. Now with three children—a son Andy was born in 1954 (d. 2005) and a daughter Dana (Slater) in 1957, Florence decided to go back to school at night to attain a master's degree, graduating from Columbia University School of Library Science in 1971. Her professional career as Mrs. Mommy as Dana, one her students called her, was now certified.

Not one to sit around when she retired as a teacher at age 76, Florence switched gears and in 2001 become the volunteer ombudsman at the Jewish Home at Rockleigh, serving as the interface between residents and management at the large senior residence/rehabilitation facility in the northeastern corner of Bergen County. Of course, she built a library there and hosted speakers, authors, and thematic programs that spoke to the residents' more youthful decades and remembrances. She was working up until April of this year, when the New Jersey Office of The Long-Term Care Ombudsman (L.T.C.O.) recognized for her for her 25 years of "exceptional commitment."

In addition to Jim (Betsy), Dana (Matthew Slater), Kathy Gregor (married to Andy), and the eight grandchildren—Charlie (Allison), William, Liza, Sam (Loren), Jake (Anna), Ian (Mike), Addie, and Nate—Florence also is survived by eight great-grandchildren, all of whom loved her dearly and were in awe of her great energy and numerous interests: from restaurants to theater to cooking multi-course dinners, from mysteries to historical non-fiction to all of Charles Dickens' works, from Barbara Streisand to the New York Mets and Giants.  Irrepressible, for sure. And quite a life!

Florence will be interred alongside her husband George at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington VA. There will be a memorial service in the spring at the Haworth Municipal Library in Haworth, New Jersey. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to Friends of the Haworth Library at haworthlibrary.org.