Mayor Jake Woodford: Tonight’s invocation will be delivered by Alder Schultz.
Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9): [You] say that with some trepidation. Fair warning, no word count, but we won’t need it.
On Sunday, I attended the memorial service for a dear friend and fellow salvage warrior Tom Grade. Now offering a eulogy as an invocation seemed a bit bad form, but hopefully that’s not how you guys hear this. Instead, I wanted to share a few of my own thoughts about what made Tom such a great community leader, one that will be dearly missed by those of Menasha and the wider Fox Valley.
To recognize Tom the artist all you have to do is look around the cities for any colorful works of paper mache. In fact, we had had some here in city center. I don’t know where they are now, but we’ll find them. But you can find them in Appleton Medical Center, Champion Sport Complex, Appleton Public Library, Fox Cities Exhibition Center, and the Atlas Science Center where perhaps one of your own kids, like mine, were taught by Tom to make paper works of art from colored pulp on a Discovery Center field trip.
Like us, Tom was an alderman only for the city of Menasha for roughly about as long as and during the same period that I have been. He served on the planning landmarks commission among others. He was instrumental in saving the one of a kind bank columns from the First National Bank demolition in Menasha, and led the re-envisioning process to have them placed on the shoreline closer to the original location.
For context, I met Tom on the side of the Sensenbrenner Mansion demolition in 2001 where I came in late to the scavenge and only managed to pull a couple of French windows. We instantly clicked over a mutual desire to save historical architecture and to salvage things that you simply cannot buy in the modern era. His zeal and enthusiasm were infectious from the get go, and despite him being 15 years my senior, I always felt like a stodgy old man whenever I was in his company.
When the call was put out to concept the plan for the aforementioned columns, I submitted one that would have placed each of the four columns at the furthest cardinal points of the Menasha boundary with lit globes displaying words to describe community. Now I thought it was pretty good idea, until Tom pulled me aside and said that while he liked it, the commission thought they should stay together and be placed downtown to make a bigger and more meaningful impact. This was hard for me to hear, because I was part of the column salvage and other finds from the bank demo that we pulled out together, and I naively thought the decision to choose my concept was going to be a no brainer. But Tom sensed that, and after that decision, he spent weeks and a few more than a few discussions with me, until we both got on the same page, and he convinced me that both the commission and he was right. And he always spent the time not just to tell you what was happening, but the rationale for why, and moreover wouldn’t rest until he knew you were at ease uncomfortable with the outcome. I believe that’s why he was such a good community leader and was so endearing to his fellow alders.
He not only had the passion it takes to serve with enthusiasm, no matter what the agenda, but he also had the–I’m sorry–not only had the passion but also the compassion that’s necessary from time to time when you have to make difficult decisions that affect the very livelihoods of your constituents, even when your heart wants to do the opposite. Sometimes this job sucks, and it can be hard to stay upbeat when you’re trying to resolve a constituent complaint and know that you really can’t offer up a good remedy or airtight rationale that will appease, but Tom could. This was his magic, and so I resolved to remind myself at the start of every council meeting or meeting of city business to serve like Tom did with passion and enthusiasm for the work at hand and compassion for the people who are affected by it. I hope you’ll do the same.
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