Page 67 - Wallingford Magazine Issue 52 Winter 2025

Al at the keys
were whatever we made them to be. In
2012, he suggested we enter the Gerald
F. Melito Sr. Poetry Contest sponsored
by Altrusa International of Central CT.
Several of us sent in poems. Several
won awards. One year Al’s poem won,
and one of Al’s poems was published in
the Hartford Courant.

Al contributed many hours to the liter-
ary arts development at the Walling-
ford Public Library, a natural draw for
him after he retired from his favorite
workplace, the Beinecke Rare Book Li-
brary at Yale University. He understood
the value of opportunities libraries can
afford to town residents, and he felt
compelled to offer literary possibilities
for townspeople with interests like his.
The Wallingford Public Library recog-
nized his persistent efforts in achieving
his ambitions to provide and expand
learning possibilities for the public by
awarding him the Wallingford Public Li-
brary’s Volunteer of the Year in 2022,
an award well-deserved. It’s no doubt
that Al left his legacy in the growth of
literary prospects in Wallingford.

Al Mueller shared with the SMwP poets
his favorite poem, “Invictus,” by William
Ernest Henley. Several times he read or
referred to the poem’s meaning, style
and composition. I believe that Al pur-
sued life, especially retirement, as per-
fectly as Henley’s portrays the speaker
in the last two lines of “Invictus.” I am
master of my fate, I am captain of my
soul.

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