Two Great Gentlemen That I’ve Had The Privilege To Know

It has taken a week or two to prepare myself to write this edition of my column. You see, I was aware I was going to do it going back almost a month ago, but I wasn’t quite sure how I would do it or what I would say. Seems everyone thinks the words come easy to me, and I don’t really want to disappoint any of you.

One of the hardest choices I had in my lifetime was the one that brought me to Florida, for I would be leaving behind a group of folks I considered my second family. My dad had left us early in our lives when he passed in 1966, and then my mother relatively quickly after a quiet bout with cancer in 1989.

Geri and Weldon were my parent’s age, but we had established a bond around 1970 when I was a new career firefighter at the age of 20. Weldon was 45 and a volunteer with the department I worked for full-time. We quickly established a bond and also served on the volunteer local rescue squad. I learned a great deal from him and maintained that friendship until he passed.

I moved on to a career that took me into the sales of emergency vehicles in 1976, first as a dealer salesman. I then went on to work for several of the major manufacturers of those vehicles, both domestically and internationally. It was hard to move away from my comfort zone where I had grown up, but once our mom had passed and our grandmother passed, my responsibilities as the eldest surviving member of the family was completed, and it freed me up to take on job-related responsibilities in the Southeast, allowing me to move to my new home in Florida.

I never lost contact with Geri and Weldon. We would talk on a weekly basis, and each summer, I would travel back up to visit with them and catch up with their family.

It was tough to see him succumb to the ravages of Alzheimer’s over about three years. It was so very hard to see the shadow of the man that used to be so vibrant and full of life fade before my eyes. It wouldn’t be long before Geri’s heart would fail her, and I had lost my second family.

However, over the many years here, I have acquired so many great friends and acquaintances over time. One of those was John “Jack” Patterson. As fellow Rotarians, we had another love, and that was politics.

“Jack” loved his service to his small community in Western Pennsylvania, where he served as Mayor prior to moving to Marco Island. He loved his experiences there in White Oak, Pennsylvania as much as I loved being a City Councilor in Concord, New Hampshire and my service as a Representative in the New Hampshire House of Representatives. Neither one of us did it for the prestige, and it certainly wasn’t for the money. Instead, it was for the gratification we received when we saw the difference it made to the constituents we served.

Jack took great satisfaction in being part of the process which brought solutions to problems. He was so disappointed with the inability of the government to put politics aside and reach across the aisle and create compromises.

One case in particular dealt with the parking issue in Old Marco. So one day after Rotary a decade ago, we went down into Old Marco, and he and I discussed some of our ideas on how to possibly come to a resolution to the stalemate creating the problem. A portion of that resulted in some of the businesses in the area putting up a portion of the dollars necessary with the city to create the engineering design. 

At the time, Jack was serving on the Planning Board, and we both agreed he should bring the idea forward before the board. He relished the idea and ran with it, discussing the concept of the special nature of Old Marco and the need to clean up the deplorable condition of the drainage and swales. This allowed the city to truly create a Historical District within Old Marco with paver streets and parallel paver parking. Local businesswoman Susan Ackerson also was a partner in this vision. Unfortunately, it would die before the council, and today we are still arguing about it. 

My friend’s heart would be broken when Councilor Honig withdrew his support for his renomination of Jack to the Planning Board. Jack was a senior member of that board and was devastated at the way it was handled. A tragic end to a man’s great contributions to the community he loved.

Jack’s health had been declining during the last several years, and recently he was admitted to the hospital for another bout of pneumonia. He was moved to a transitioning facility where he would pass a few days later.

A great man whose integrity, knowledge, and love of community will be greatly missed, as well as my coffee chats with the man from Pennsylvania. I can only hope he and Weldon might catch up sometime and share a cup of coffee. I smile when I think about that, for they were two great men whom I was proud to call friends and learned much from them both.