Tlapek built influence, leaves behind legacy

One of Cape's silent leaders passed away last week. J.P. "Pat" Tlapek was always a voice of reason and calm in meetings I attended with him. He also established a major influence in the auto industry started with one store ad, building it to the 49-store Auto Tire And Parts. Elected to leadership in his industry, he also served as president of Southeast Missouri State University's board of regents.

He was a major donor to the university with the gift of the Tlapek General Services Building, now the university's Law Enforcement Academy, Facilities Management paint and wood/construction shop and the Missouri State Highway Patrol's Crime Lab. He leaves a legacy with his extended family of Tlapeks.

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My wife and I attended the wedding our our grandson Alex Terry (son of Alan and Penny Rust Terry) to Julie Frerich last weekend in Durham, North Carolina.

This was the first wedding of one of our 14 grandchildren and especially meaningful because of the Christian strength of both families.

We also got to meet about eight couples and friends of Alan and Penny who met at a Bible study group at Wharton University 30 years ago and who have met at least once per year ever since.

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Kudos to 573 Magazine's most recent issue and its feature on Cape Girardeau's Peter Kinder. It was an informative interview that let others know some of the character traits of Kinder that his friends respect.

Also featured was an article on Dennis Vollink, company president of Drury Southwest and who also serves on the board of Drury Hotels, among other important posts.

Dennis has his own observatory and Meade 10-inch and 14-inch reflector telescopes. He's an 8,500-hour pilot (which I immensely respect) and an "astro" photographer.

Nice to know many of his family teach at Notre Dame Regional High School.

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While calling attention to some locally involved people, kudos also to Barbara Thompson, founder of the Roberts Group and marketing director at Saint Francis Medical Center. The Roberts Group was recently mentioned by custom Forbes.com as one of the top 25 major women-owned businesses in Wisconsin and one of the top 20 largest ad agencies in the Milwaukee area for the past four years (both by the Milwaukee Business Journal).

Thompson founded the Roberts Group in 1981 and spends a lot of time at Saint Francis Medical Center here in Cape Girardeau, which incidentally went online July 1 with its new software program, EPIC.

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Food for Thought from the web:

• If you can get arrested for hunting or fishing without a license, but not for being in the country illegally, you live in a country run by idiots.
• If you have to get your parent's permission to go on a field trip or to take an aspirin in school, but not to get an abortion, you live in a country run by idiots.
• If you have to show identification to board an airplane, cash a check, buy liquor or check out a library book, but not to vote for who runs the government, you live in a country run buy idiots.
• If, in the largest city, you can buy two 16-ounce sodas, but not a 24-ounce soda because 24 ounces of a sugary drink might make you fat, you live in a country run by idiots.
• If hard work and success are met with higher taxes and more government intrusion, while not working is rewarded with EBT cards, WIC checks, Medicaid, subsidized housing and free cellphones, you live in a country run by idiots.
• If the government's plan for getting people back to work is to incentivize not working with 99 weeks of unemployment checks and no requirement to prove they applied but cannot find work, you live in a country run by idiots.

Gary Rust is the chairman of the board of Rust Communications.