We asked if we had any Tri-City greats left. This is how readers responded

I wrote a recent column asking if Tri-Cities still needed the kind of champions it had decades ago — those well known go-getters who had a way of making big dreams turn into community assets.

The question was prompted by the recent death of long-time philanthropist Bob Ferguson, who helped guide the community’s growth and who donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to Tri-City programs that needed a launch or extra support.

I had hoped people would find the topic intriguing, but had no idea it would resonate among readers the way it did. Responses arrived quickly.

I even got an invitation to meet over lunch to discuss this topic further.

One member of the old guard who still fights for Tri-City issues is Gary Petersen of Richland. He retired five years ago from TRIDEC, where he served as vice president, focusing on Hanford cleanup issues and other federal issues.

He let me know that after the column hit the internet, he received a couple dozen email messages from people from Olympia, California and Washington, D.C.

I’m not sure what to make of that, except that Petersen clearly still has connections across the nation.

And that’s exactly the kind of heavy-lifter the Tri-Cities needs.

Petersen, however, just sold his house — which he and his wife have lived in for 49 years — and plans to move to Idaho to be closer to children and grandchildren.

He acknowledged that “there are fewer and fewer gray beards left who understand both the history and the current status of Hanford issues. There has been some tremendous work done, but there is also a long-crooked trail ahead.”

Petersen said he has been in the Tri-Cities too long to perform an instant disappearing act, which is good news for us. But his leaving only emphasizes how community leadership is changing.

Many people who responded to my column wanted to add to the list of past Tri-City champions.

I had listed only a few in order to get the conversation started, but more than one reader suggested I should have mentioned Tri-City Herald founder and publisher Glenn C. Lee, who was a driving force in the community for decades.

There’s also former Herald publisher Kelso Gillenwater, who along with former Washington State University President Sam Smith, pushed for the university branch campus system.

It wasn’t long ago most students had to leave home to get a college degree, but now there are branch campuses throughout the state thanks in large part to a plan drawn up in Gillenwater’s office.

Jan Greenwell of Pasco suggested I should have included Mark Pence, Ken Maurer and Chuck Keltch for their work with the Tri-Cities Water Follies and making it a “premier boat race.”

She said Keltch and his family are responsible for developing Wade Park — the waterfront viewing area on the Pasco side of the river.

And I’m sure there are many, many other wonderful Tri-Citians who have unselfishly given their time and money to help the community.

The good in people isn’t the question. It’s more about vision and how to make the big ideas happen.

Members of the Columbia Basin Badger Club are considering building on this topic for a future program. I think that’s a great idea and hope it happens. The more community-wide discussion of where the Tri-Cities is headed, the better.

Mark Smith, chairman of the Badger Club program committee, noted the Tri-Cities is now a metro area of over 300,000 and more diverse, which means the issues that demand leadership also must be diverse.

He and others also point out that allowing the community to become politically polarized only hurts us.

“Working against each other tears our community down,” Smith wrote.

I couldn’t agree more.

So how do we get beyond that? That’s a key question.

Perhaps if enough people start looking for the answer, we will find it.