There still remains, defiantly -- like a leaf that refuses to fall quietly against the oncoming winter -- a gentle cadre of those who honor the rich pantheon of our history in books and letters. They possess the curiosity of a thousand felines, are given the gift of oration that is dictatorially sound, and they spin that fluid voice into spoken words that remind us of when we were children, tucked into sleep by the last voices we would hear, telling us bedtime stories.

They are our bookish documentarians, our historians and our transcribers, for whom a lost book suddenly found in a dusty bookstore is a found treasure that provides a link to another clue that can finally complete the maze of study that goes into their research, their books and their public talks. 

For nearly two decades, Gene Pisasale has been one of Chester County’s most honored, well-respected and prodigious historians, and the number of local residents who have read his 11 books – many about the Brandywine Valley – or attended his compelling lectures easily number well into the thousands. Each chapter, each presentation has been a classroom of stories that has infectiously compelled others to get to the deep, rich mantle core of Chester County and its history. 

On September 24, Pisasale stood before a sizable audience at the Kennett Library and delivered a presentation entitled “Heritage of the Brandywine Valley,” a deferential sweep that covered 300 years of heritage, events, and contributions from statesmen, inventors, authors and artists, from William Penn to William Darlington to Samuel Barber to Bayard Taylor. It was a magnificent and compelling sweep, and for Pisasale, it would be his last lecture – a final imprint upon the community he has devoted so much of his passion to. He wishes to spend more time traveling with his wife, Phyllis, and of course, visiting historical sites and museums as part of his agenda. 

As fellow documentarians of Chester County, we feel a kinship with Pisasale and at the same time, a partnership with him. His “Living History” columns about local history are regularly published in this newspaper and will continue to be, and his retrospectives of people and places have become one of the most popular articles in our several regional magazines. 

Throughout our lives, we have been guided and nudged and cajoled and taught and inspired by men and women of letters. We read their books, pore over their reviews and their essays and if we are truly lucky, we are fortunate enough to hear them in their finest element – at a public stage, telling us the stories about who we are. For nearly 20 years, Gene Pisasale has enthralled and informed us, brought life to the memorials and statues we drive by, and with his voice ringing out from podium to podium, told us that the final sum of who we are can only be calculated by adding up the people, the moments and the history of what came before us.