Bookie’s Local Beverly Bookstore The Xavierite
A local Beverly bookstore, Bookie’s, continues to keep Rich Wojcikowski in their everyday life after his sudden death.
Wojcikowski was the operations manager of Bookie’s. On Sep. 4, Wojcikowski, 57, died tragically in a car accident.
The bookstore announced his death in a social media post and states that Bookie’s staff are in a state of shock and mourning Wojcikowski’s sudden death.
Wojcikowski joined Bookie’s in 2018 and started off as an “ordinary” employee.
When owner Keith Lewis would ask for help around the bookstore, Wojcikowski began to step up and take those responsibilities as if they were his own.
Lewis calls Wojcikowski the most organized and hardworking person he has ever known.
Lewis said, “It is going to be impossible to replace him.”
While Lewis is the owner of Bookie’s, Wojcikowski took over numerous roles to make sure the business operated on a higher and more efficient level.
“He tried so hard to increase business, and every role and responsibility that we used to do, he did better,” said Lewis.
Before Wojcikowski started working at Bookie’s, the bookstore would only have a single, annual book fair.
With the help of Wojcikowski, Bookie’s started increasing the amount of book fairs they would host, up to the point where Bookie’s started hosting a book fair almost once a week.
“It was a huge jump. The quality of the book fairs went up; the satisfaction of the book fairs rose,” said Lewis.
Bookie’s also would complete school orders, in which Wojcikowski dedicated in bringing better quality.
It is hard to pinpoint and only name a singular role for Wojcikowski due to him helping and taking over many tasks, which allowed Lewis to rely on him.
“I could rely on him so much that I was able to step back from the store and work on other projects,” said Lewis.
Lewis also said Wojcikowski loved building and fixing things at the bookstore.
Lewis recalled a time where Wojcikowski took a screw along with a drill to keep a pencil cup in place at the front counter of the bookstore.
“Rich never liked things to move, and he did not want the pencil cup to get knocked over because he thought it would not be efficient, so he took a drill and a screw to keep the cup secured,” said Lewis.
As Lewis recalls Wojcikowski as a loyal employee with many joking memories, he also considered him as a dear friend.
Lewis recalled a phone call with Wojcikowski in which Lewis mentioned the Lewis family’s swing set falling apart. Wojcikowski did not hesitate to go over and fix the swing set.
“Instead of telling me how to fix the swing set, Rich had pieces of wood gathered up and came over to single-handedly fix it for my daughter,” said Lewis.
Lewis stated that he will dearly miss Wojcikowski and the time that they would spend together outside of the store.
Bookie’s will be taking time to figure out what to do next after Wojcikowski’s unfortunate death.
“We have to figure out now how Rich did things. I have a great crew and we’re trying to figure out how to move forward,” said Lewis.
Bookie’s will be asking for the community and the people who support the bookstore to bear with them for a little bit as they figure out what their future will look like.
Wojcikowski leaves behind a significant impact on Bookie’s and the community of Beverly. The bookstore will push forward in remembrance of Wojcikowski and his love, passion, and dedication towards Bookie’s and the community.
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