Man on a Mission: Gregory Lum

Words that come to mind to describe Gregory Lum include earnest, dedicated, and above and beyond the call of duty. For Lum, the Jesuit High School library is part of a moral vision. “We try to instill these values in our students: 'Men and women for others,'” he says.

To “get to know students beyond a face in the library,” Lum attends their school events, leads student retreats, sponsors the National Honor Society, and guides the schoolwide summer reading program.

He brings the same sense of service and leadership to the wider library community. As a leader in Oregon's school library associations, he developed a literacy grant for the state's school libraries and created a program that enabled school library personnel to attend their first statewide conference.

Lum also organized the first Jesuit Secondary Education Association National Librarians Conference. This is one reason Jesuit High School's academic vice principal Paul Hogan believes that Lum has had a “major impact on the quality of education at Jesuit High School, in high schools throughout Oregon, and in the 49 Jesuit high schools in the United States.”

For Lum, Jesuit's library does not merely provide a living. It is a place to live his values.