Man instrumental in building area water, sewer systems dead

PERRYVILLE, Mo. -- Tom Tucker, who directed the Southeast Missouri Regional Planning and Economic Development Commission for more than three decades, died Tuesday at his home in Perryville after a battle with cancer. He was 62.

Local officials and co-workers said Tucker was instrumental in securing government grants that provided many Southeast Missouri cities with water and sewer systems.

"I don't know how many sewer systems we built," said Cape Girardeau city planner Kent Bratton who worked for the Perryville-based planning agency for more than 16 years.

Kent said the planning agency early on helped engineer and design the sewer systems and secure the money to build them.

Tucker was the planning commission's first and only director until he resigned Friday. The commission's deputy director, Chauncy Buchheit, is now acting director.

The commission's board voted Friday to establish a college scholarship in Tucker's name.

When Tucker was hired to direct the fledgling commission in 1970, regional planning was new to Southeast Missouri.

Bratton said Tucker brought a professional approach to management of local government in the seven-county area served by the agency. The agency serves county and city governments in Cape Girardeau, Bollinger, Madison, Iron, St. Francois, Ste. Genevieve and Perry counties.

Bratton began working for Tucker in 1972.

No request too small

"When I got there, there were few cities that even had base maps," he recalled. "We mapped every city that wanted to be mapped. We did a lot of field work, walking streets here and there, everywhere."

No request was too small. Bratton remembers the time the planning commission intervened with the federal government to secure the federal revenue sharing needed for the small town of Zalma to pay its street light bill.

The Navy veteran loved his planning work.

"There was not a meeting that he wouldn't attend for the betterment of a city or county," said Stan Balsman, the planning commission's director of graphics. "He put a lot of his personal life in it."

Said Balsman, "He knew the region probably as well as anybody."

Gerald Jones, Cape Girardeau County presiding commissioner, said Tucker was a pioneer in regional planning in this area.

"It was a one-man operation at the start," said Jones.

Tucker helped develop city and county master plans. He secured numerous government grants in behalf of local governments in the region, Jones said.

Visitation is scheduled today at Young and Sons Chapel in Perryville from 4 to 9 p.m. and on Friday from 6:30 to 9:30 a.m.

Funeral Mass for Tucker will be held at 10 a.m. Friday at St. Vincent de Paul Catholic Church in Perryville. Burial will be in Mount Hope Cemetery with military graveside service provided by American Legion Post 133.

mbliss@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 123