John Dietz

John (Jack) A. Dietz is retired from the North Dakota Judiciary.  Prior to his retirement in 2004, he presided primarily in the Family Court of Cass County. A lifelong resident of North Dakota, Dietz received his B.S. degree from NDSU and his Juris Doctor degree from UND. He has lived in Fargo for 30+ years with his wife, Dr. Donna Dietz, and their menagerie of two small dogs and a large cat. Their three children are grown and have moved on to establish homes and careers of their own. Jack has ample time to indulge his ongoing love of books and sees the Library Board as a good fit to his interests and background.

Gary Grohberg

MaryBeth Hegstad

MaryBeth Hegstad is a career law clerk for the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of North Dakota. She attended Jamestown College and majored in English, history/political science, and psychology. She graduated with honors from the University of North Dakota School of Law. During law school, MaryBeth served as an associate editor of the North Dakota Law Review and participated in an exchange program with the University of Oslo, Norway. She clerked for the North Dakota Supreme Court before moving to Fargo in 2001.

MaryBeth grew up in the country outside Mandan, North Dakota, with books as constant companions. The country school she attended until fourth grade did not have a library. It was, however, served by a bookmobile, and Mary Beth continues to be thankful for the access to books the bookmobile provided her and her schoolmates.

MaryBeth enjoys reading, kick boxing, traveling and new experiences. She is active in two book clubs and also volunteers with the YWCA.

Helen Levitt
Acting President

Helen Levitt is a Nurse Diabetes Educator at Sanford Diabetes Center. She was born in Chicago, and received her Bachelors in Nursing from the University of Illinois. She later married and moved to Minnesota, and then to Fargo in 1979.  She received her Masters in Public and Human Services Administration from Moorhead State University. Helen has 3 grown children, all of whom share Helen’s love of reading. She lives in Fargo with her husband and 2 dogs.

Helen has been a library patron since her first week in Fargo, and is rarely seen without a library book in hand.  She has been a willing volunteer for many years.  She has served on the Board in the past, serving as Board Chair from 2007-2008.  During that time, she was involved in inception and completion of the Dr. James Carlson Library. She also served on the Building committee for the new Main library, which opened shortly after her tenure as Board Chair. She continues to volunteer at the library whenever she can.

Larry Peterson

Larry Peterson was born in Denver, Colorado and moved to Fargo in 1959 when he started junior high school. He has fond memories of Fargo’s old Carnegie library on Roberts Street and Second Avenue North. After graduating from Fargo Central High in 1965, he earned his BA in English from Moorhead State University and his PhD in American Studies from the University of Minnesota. He has been at NDSU since 1977, chairing the History Department from 1989-2006 and the General Education Committee for most the last 20 years. His areas of expertise are the history of race in America, American intellectual history, and the history of families in America. He is married to Mary C. Struck and has two grown sons, Geoffrey and Erik, and two grandsons, Spencer and Collin. His favorite authors are Shakespeare, F. Scott Fitzgerald, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Toni Morrison.

Herb Snyder

Richard Zeck

I'm the senior pastor of First United Methodist Church here in Fargo for going on four years now. My education is a B.S. Degree from South Dakota State University and then a Masters of Divinity from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois.

I have been a lifelong reader and am passionate about creating opportunities for all to have access to knowledge. It is an honor to serve on the Library Board. To keep myself busy I have four children to keep Bonnie (my wife) and I running and happy. I enjoy working out at the YMCA, sports, watching a good movie and probably spend too much time listening to sports radio and 24-hour news stations.

Mike Williams
Commissioner Liaison

Voters elected Mike Williams to the Fargo City Commission in June 2004 and re-elected him in 2008.

Williams was born and raised in Fargo, the youngest of 10 children. He is happily married to Susan, whom he calls the "best thing ever." Williams is an insurance adjuster/risk manager and director of auxiliary services for Greenfields Energy and currently serves as Chair of the ND Alliance for Renewable Energy. His interests include reading, public policy, building a more proactive, sustainable community, walking, biking and being outdoors.

You can reach Commissioner Williams by e-mail at mjwilliams@cityoffargo.com or by phone at (701) 241-1310.