HUCKSTEP: A CHARACTER WITH CHARACTER

Upon the death of the great 18th century British architect Sir Christopher Wren, a London admirer said, "If you would ask what are his monuments, look around you."

So it is with Gene Huckstep. Look around. Begin with the stunningly beautiful Cape Girardeau County Park north and south along U.S. 61 between Cape Girardeau and Jackson. These sylvan hillsides were there for decades but weren't anything like the current showplace until the loving care they received in the Huckstep years. Those years saw the addition of the magnificent Veterans Memorial, annual site of Cape County Memorial Day ceremonies. Every trip past it is a stirring, lump-in-the-throat tribute to Huckstep's vision, stewardship and patriotism.

Adjacent to the south park, and carved out of its acreage, is another Huckstep monument: the Missouri Veterans Home. This beautifully maintained home has become a vital a part of local pride. Huckstep worked with his fellow commissioners, with then-Gov. Christopher Bond and with state lawmakers to make this gem a reality.

On the north, and again carved out of park acreage, is the Missouri Department of Conservation Nature Center and nature trails. Another showplace.

The effort to build the Southeast Missouri Regional Port Authority had predated Huckstep's tenure by more than three years. Still, it was his arrival on the scene as steward of county government that really got things rolling down on the Cape Girardeau-Scott county line. Again working with colleagues Leonard Sander and J. Ronald Fischer, Huckstep appointed first-rate commissioners to work with their counterparts from Scott County. Most important, his credibility was crucial in the 1985 vote to pass a quarter-cent sales tax in both counties to fund port improvements. On Huckstep's promise that the tax would last only four years and then expire, voters endorsed it by majorities of greater than 72 percent.

Promise made, promise kept. The tax yielded more than $7 million in four years. From Huckstep's early vision, joined by so many others, a small but bustling industrial city is arising at what is known as one of the finest intermodal ports in North America. Three of the nation's great rail lines tie directly into the port. What a fitting tribute that he lived to see it. Today it is connected by a new road to Interstate 55, on the other side of which lies the Cape Girardeau Regional Airport. Good things lie ahead for our entire region because of the bet Gene Huckstep was willing to make back in the 1970s and '80s.

All this and much more he accomplished while building up millions in cash reserves for the county and making it, financially, the envy of the entire state.

It is perhaps not widely known that Gene Huckstep never took a reimbursement check from the county, because he never submitted an expense request.

No tribute to Huckstep could be complete without mention of his years of extraordinary efforts in extricating accident victims from wrecked automobiles. Nights. Weekends. Howling winter storms. He and his devoted crew ventured forth into them all. Again, no charge.

Then there was Gene Huckstep the character -- one of the great characters who ever lived, in fact. Gene Huckstep was a lot of fun. His lively sense of humor and outrageous personality won him many friends in places near and far.

Somehow, he found time to be chairman of the board at St. Francis Medical Center and to become recognized as a leader in area health care. A devoted family man, he and his wife, Betty, raised four children and did so enjoy their grandchildren. Quite a lot for only 69 years.

Gene Huckstep loved his native Cape Girardeau County and had absolute confidence in its people. And, oh, how they loved him.

It is with tearful smiles that we bid him a fond farewell and, reaching for Holy Scripture, add: "Well done, good and faithful servant."