I am going to deviate from my normal monthly column this month. I want to talk a little about my colleague and friend Tom Godbey. Tom's sudden passing came as a shock to all of us.
Tom's businesses and support of Garretson are pretty well known. I learned a lot from his obituary about things that he was involved with, but I want to talk about other things you may not know about Tom.
When I moved to Garretson I attended council meetings to learn about the town. I met Tom when he, Greg Beaner and I ran for Mayor many years ago. I ran into Tom at Big Ern's one afternoon and we talked at length about our ideas, thoughts and visions for Garretson. All three of us had similar ideas and agreed on most things, but we had significant differences in styles and priorities. Greg won the election and Tom and I reflected on what to do next. Tom had been very active in city government and encouraged me to run for city council. (Along with Jake Jacobson) When I won a seat on the council Tom was the first person to congratulate me. We often disagreed on how best to get things done, but we talked it out, listened to each other and came to a compromise.
When I ran for mayor last year Tom was the first to want to sit down and talk to me about things he thought needed to be done. It was a long list! The only thing he asked of me was to appoint him to the parks board. I gladly did that when I was elected.
Tom truly loved Garretson's parks and described himself as a “tree hugger” and to him the parks came first! Well before all this happened I was out helping cut up neighborhood trees that had been blown down by the severe windstorm. When I finished with those I drove out to Split Rock park, because we had an outdoor church in one of the picnic shelters a couple days later. The shelter had 2 trees that had come down on one side of it and when I pulled up Tom was there cutting them up. We worked together for a couple of hours to clear the shelter and make it usable for our Sunday Service.
Many of you may not know his “giving” to the parks. Every year Tom purchased a large number of trees and had them delivered to the city. He also built the newest picnic shelter in the park and paid for it himself! He just did things that he thought needed to be done and never asked for recognition or praise. Tom is responsible for pushing the reconstruction of the park’s roads and suggestions on developing new campsites and places where people could just enjoy the parks. Several months ago Tom gave me a list of things that he wanted to see get done. We spent time discussing them and prioritizing them. (Tom didn't really like that much, but understood we couldn't do everything at once.) His list and ideas have become part of our plans for the parks.
At the council meeting the evening before Tom passed away, we had our usual banter as well as serious discussion after the meeting. The last thing he said to me before he went home was that he liked short meetings like the one we just had. I consider that a high compliment.
I consider myself fortunate to have known and worked with Tom and I will miss him greatly. He was ALL Garretson ALL the time!
Karla has asked that donations be made to the Fire Department, Ambulance Service, the Blue Dragon Foundation and the American Legion. I think he would want donations for trees!
-Bruce Brown, Mayor
