Letter to the Editor

Bud Job: A man of great stature

To the editor:

I was saddened by the passing of Bud Job (I always pronounced it "Yobe"). Like so many of his generation he was, in my estimation, a quiet man of great stature.

I met Bud for the first time around 1982. He was a volunteer on the SEMO District Fair Board. He probably served in that capacity for more than 50 years. Bud, Pete Poe, Bob Hendrix and Earl James gave me and a fledgling Red Letter Communications a shot, despite my youthful ignorance and unearned overconfidence. I often reflect on the generosity of those gents -- and many like them -- who made and still make the extra effort to encourage young persons, to open doors and to pass along their significant life lessons to those willing to learn.

For the next 30 years I would see Bud and Mrs. Job in the community, around the fair and mostly at Sunday Mass. He always greeted me with a smile and had something positive to say. He had a way of delivering a little phrase packaged with a chuckle that always brightened your day. Having raised 10 children, lived through the Depression and several wars, farmed and all his life lived as a practicing Christian, he had a pretty good grasp on what was important and what wasn't, what was real and lasting and what was transient and fleeting.

The last time I saw Bud he walked by me in church and, because I was at the end of the pew, shook my hand. I had the same sensation then as I did 30 years earlier: His fingers were like rolls of quarters, and in his shake you sensed incredible reliability, character, authenticity and experience. He was a man you could rely upon absolutely to do what he said he was going to do.

I wish he were here now so that I could thank him for his many contributions and congratulate him on being a great man who lived a full and happy and significant life.

JAMES W. RILEY Jr., Cape Girardeau