Dear Waitman,
There are just some things about Owensboro that I take for granted … that I just assume will always be here.
Like the Blue Bridge and the sassafras tree, you are an icon that I have associated with my hometown since I can remember.
I will cherish the years I was able to work with you and to learn from you. The time we were on staff together at the Chamber and Industry, Inc. was such an experience. There are so many lifelong lessons, mostly taught through example.
The way you encouraged young people to step up and lead. You had real-world advice and you didn’t sugarcoat the sacrifice that public servants, particularly local elected officials, make when they are trying to lead through change. The courageous and big picture decisions you made as mayor have grown and will continue to grow our economy and improve our overall quality of life. You made your time in office count.
Your belief in corporate leadership here in Owensboro. You believed firmly that business leaders should not just serve to advance their own career or organization — they should serve first and foremost to advance Owensboro.
How you introduced people in groups. You had a way of identifying an extraordinary quality or outstanding fact about each person. That started every meeting or presentation off on a positive note. It also instilled community pride to consider the vast accomplishments of our people.
The way you would get up during a committee meeting or board meeting and begin serving everyone in the room, ensuring that everyone had a full cup of coffee or a doughnut. You were always the senior in the group, our former mayor. But you were the one who would serve others.
The way you would bring every staff member a rose on Valentine’s Day and candy on Halloween, and how you and Pat would open your home to our staff during the Christmas season and your farm to us in the fall. As one of our former co-workers said, you were a Prince of Man. Gentility, warmth and hospitality were your hallmarks.
The way you taught resilience. Though you suffered great personal loss, you were able to pick yourself up and live a life filled with joy and love. You once told me that no one wants to be around someone wallowing in sadness. Just make up your mind to smile and focus on the good.
Your love of family. A testament of a good man, I never saw your eyes light up more than when you talked about your wife and family.
A final lesson that we can learn from you was in the simple way you said hello. You would say, “What’s the good word?” I had never really thought about those words until after you passed. What’s the good word? You automatically greet someone with the invitation to have a positive reaction. Even if someone is feeling sour or having a bad day or may be a curmudgeon by nature, they are challenged to think of something good to say. And they reply with a good word.
Talk about wisdom …
At your service, it was said that you will live on through the memories that your friends and family have of you. So in that line of thinking, you continue to be our icon. And the examples you set for my generation will hopefully be carried on to the next through our stories of you and so on …
What’s the good word? “Love” is. And that is what you gave to all of us and to Owensboro. We will do our best to pass it on