Given to fly

By Matt Lane
Editor

April 28, 2008 07:45 am

— He loved to fly almost as much as he loved to tell stories of his aeronautical adventures. His voice still rings in this office, I can hear the one about the fog in San Francisco or the ice in Denver.
John L. Tucker, publisher of the McAlester News-Capital, and my good friend and faithful colleague, died Friday. He was 57.
Tucker was a good and decent man who always — and I mean always — had a smile to loan or an uplifting word to give. That is often said of people after they join the crowd invisible — it’s courteous to say nice things about people after they are dead — but it is pure truth and a credit to the man to say these things about Tucker.
I am an insistent man and sometimes I am too quick to lash out. I’m also not the smartest kid in the class because I’ll do this to my boss even. I did it a time or two (or three, or more) to Tucker and every time he brought me right back down to the ground. He never got mad. He didn’t yell. He did something a curmudgeon like me can hardly stand: Tucker took the fury, molded it into inspiration and threw it right back at me.
Friends do that, you know, and exceptional leaders do it too. Tucker was both.
There are some who argued that this good and decent man had some secret agenda, some nefarious plan to play along with the old power brokers. These cowards cast ugly slanders upon him and accused him wrongly while advocating running him out of town.
Tucker didn’t mind. He smiled in the face of this often vitriolic criticism, looked for any kernels of truth in it, and went on about the business at hand.
One of his dreams, one that we should continue to work toward, was ensuring there is enough affordable housing in McAlester — places where working men and women can live and prosper. Tucker plead the case to anyone who he thought might be able to help. He did this, he told me, so that companies would want to come to our town, so that new jobs and new wealth could be created. Tucker was an advocate for growth.
Tucker had other passions: his family, golfing, his mother. He did love this newspaper and knew, like I know, that he was a steward charged with ensuring this institution of truth continues down the right and narrow path.
He was committed to journalism conducted in an ethical manner, journalism that informs and enlightens the readers this newspaper serves. He did his duty; he fought the good fight. He passes the News-Capital to its next steward in good working order.
I miss Tucker but I know I am better for having served under him. He was a good publisher and a good man and he loved to fly. The ceiling’s unlimited, John. The sun is shining and the sky is all yours.
Matt Lane is the editor of the McAlester News-Capital. Send him hate mail or encouragement to: Editor, P.O. Box 987, McAlester, OK, 74501. Call him at 421-2022 or send an e-mail to editor@mcalesternews.com.