An extraordinary thing happened at the Purdy City Council meeting in August.
Bob Moser, a retired Monett police dispatcher, has been serving on the Purdy City Council on and off since 2005, after he spent one term as mayor, resigning after being elected to a second term. He had difficulty reconstructing his history due to the number of times he came back on board, often because no one else would do it.
For years Purdy was one of those towns where people didn’t file for city council until the last minute. It got to be a running joke between myself and the city clerk. There haven’t been many hotly contested races for the school board either.
Purdy has had its share of great and not-so-great leaders. Sarah Ceselski had a tumultuous term as mayor, that came to a near-impeachment and one night had a council member recruited out of the crowd. Later, Curtis Betterton evened the ship of state with a cool head and financial expertise, even landing the company that today runs the city’s water system. He died unexpectedly in office.
Moser has been a rock of sensibility, regularly asking questions, seeking clarity when needed rather than shaking the boat or speaking just to hear himself talk, like some people seem to do. Sometimes he would dip into his reservoir of stories from 20+ years working nights for Monett’s police dispatching.
Last month, during a discussion of unpaid water bills, he described a co-worker in Monett who liked to borrow money to buy beer. When the man didn’t pay it back, Bob cut him off. That presented the “two beers and you’re out” rule, a sensible formula for dealing with customers. Soft-spoken, reasonable, and fair described the way Moser approached city service.
Now, in his later years, as a widower and not very mobile, Moser has asked council members for awhile to find someone to take his seat. He claimed to serve because no one else would, but the other council members valued his deeper experience, his folksy manner and keen perception, really not wanting to see him go.
Someone who recently attended council meetings in the audience – which seldom included anyone other than this reporter and occasionally a citizen with a problem; rarely a spectator – offered to join. Heath Postlewait, likely half Moser’s age, presented the opportunity toward the end of the session. Recognizing the moment, Moser hand-wrote a letter of resignation, and without fanfare, gathered his things and left while Mayor Brian Bowers administered the oath of office to Postlewait.
Out in the parking lot, Moser slowly got into his car for the trip home.
Here was a man who answered the call of duty. He continued to serve his community far beyond expectations, even starting conversations about improving the business climate in town when no one else raised the subject. Here was a man who deserved nothing less than a parade of thanks, quietly going home.
As we hear more and more about the decline of volunteerism in the nation, people especially in small towns are coming to recognize the critical contributions made by neighbors who built these communities, acknowledging the need for each other. Critics may complain about gerontocracy when older people serve in government. In small towns, these seniors may be the only ones who have time to serve.
School boards are too often filled with young parents who lack expertise in the complexities of education or the know-how to correct course if the program runs haphazardly. It’s become hard enough to find anyone willing to serve, let alone someone who knows what they are talking about, or someone willing to recognize what they don’t know, with enough time and gumption to learn enough to fix the problem.
We don’t have enough Bob Mosers. We could do better cherishing those around us. There’s satisfaction in quietly walking into the night, but as a community, we lose too much letting go of small figures who were really giants in our midst.
Murray Bishoff has been a reporter in Barry and Lawrence counties for more than 30 years. He may be reached at murraybishoff@gmail.com.
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