Editorial: Too many local leaders dying in this cold winter

It was shocking to hear of the death of Jayne Atchinson in January and then to hear of Kurt Atchinson’s death in February, about a month later.
The Atchinsons are a leading family in our business and social community and we are sorry to hear of their passings and we send our condolences to Craig and Medina Atchinson for their untimely loss.
Kurt Atchinson was very kind to our newspaper when we were fighting to get established in 1995. Atchinson Ford has been a constant advertiser with us and we do appreciate it very much.
Now, we hear of former Sumpter Township Supervisor Johnny Vawters dying at home on Saturday afternoon. Johnny was so good as supervisor and people who were angry at the township would come into a township board meeting and Johnny would let them get all their problems off their chests. Then, they ended up smiling and joking with Johnny at the end of the meeting. People want to be heard and Johnny listened.
Johnny also asked us to be the township’s newspaper of record and didn’t bother with bidding or negotiations. We gave them the same price as our other legals and when we had to bid lower elsewhere for the legals, we reduced Sumpter’s price to match. We had a friendly relationship and Johnny would visit our office regularly to talk. We miss him very much. Rest in peace.