Eric Furry would get up before the sunrise, no matter the season.
Rising between 4:30 and 5 a.m. to make coffee, he would read the paper and make a loaf of bread, according to his wife, Vera Furry. A few hours later, he would put on his jeans, white button-up shirt with his glasses and pens in the front pocket, and layer his brown tweed blazer over it to get ready for work.
He would also slip his Birkenstock sandals on in any weather. Sometimes without socks, even in the winter.
Once he was dressed, he would walk just feet from his house to his bookstore, the Pro Libris Bookshop, to open at 10 a.m.
Eric Furry, who died at 76 on Jan. 18, opened Pro Libris on Third Street in 1980 after moving to the Queen City in the ’70s. Over the 46 years he manned the front counter next to the two goldfish he kept and a cat that happened to wander in 17 years ago and never leave, Furry became an institution of Bangor.
As customers would trickle into the store, they would ask him for recommendations from the more than 30,000 books that lined the store’s shelves. His commitment to knowing the books he had in stock meant he intimately understood what someone might want to read based on what genre they enjoyed or what they had last read, Vera Furry said.
Because of his dedication, some of his customers first visited the shop when they were kids and now bring their own children to the store.
People who have called the shop since his death have offered Vera their condolences, she said, and shared stories about how he had helped them find a book or how they would stop in the shop whenever they were in the area.
“He’s already missed by so many people,” Vera Furry said.
Born on July 12, 1949, in New Bremen, Ohio, Eric Furry is survived by his wife, his brother Gordon and his wife Connie, as well as several nieces and nephews, according to his obituary.
When he wasn’t working at the shop or washing his white shirts, Eric Furry spent his time at home with Vera and Olive, their shih tzu.
After working at the bookstore six days a week for decades, Vera Furry said she asked him to take more time off to be together at their coastal home near Castine. When Eric Furry conceded and bumped the shop down to being open five, and ultimately four, days a week, he spent his extra time in the summer reading by the beach.
Vera Furry, on the other hand, said she spent her time tossing pebbles at her husband’s book to get his attention.
During one summer, Eric Furry told his wife he “loved these days off” away from the store despite his dedicated customer base. But his customers kept him coming to the store, which he called more of a retirement than a job.
He would spend his time in the shop reading books standing up and listening to a collection of CDs.
Vera Furry said she doesn’t have set plans on what to do with Pro Libris now, but she wants to sell the business as a whole so it can continue to be the store Eric Furry worked so hard to create, but it’ll be different without him staffing it.
He would make sure to take time to talk with his customers about anything, especially if he thought they were upset or having a bad day, Vera Furry said.
“He would talk to people and try to make them feel better about life,” she said.
Talking with these customers was part of his spirituality, Vera Furry said. He didn’t want to see anyone angry or upset, so he tried to help them.
“There’s not one person that would have anything bad to say about Eric,” Vera Furry said.
Despite his long, brown hair, commitment to wearing sandals daily and easy-going nature, Vera Furry said her husband was “different than your regular hippy guy” because he would spend his time at home watching Nascar and cheering on his favorite driver, Ricky Craven.
Eric Furry’s health declined quickly in January. He spent less than two weeks in the hospital before he died, Vera Furry said.
He was surrounded by family and friends when he died, with his last words being “I love you honey” to his wife.
