Ruch: exemplary citizen

Jacques was equally at home consulting with the contemplative or chatting with the cantankerous. A superb listener, he was invariably polite, but was also remarkably effective in presenting his personal viewpoints. Jacques understood that civic discourse depended on actually talking with one another in a convivial environment. To that end, he was an outstanding citizen volunteer role model – giving of his time and energy to causes he believed in, but fully accepting those who might not be able to fully emulate his energies.
For all those who knew him, Jacques’ departure from our lives is a sad beginning to 2014. His 85 years of life on Earth was too short a time to contain his ebullient spirit. But the writer of this letter would ask all who knew Jacques to hold on to his memory, by making their own lives a modest monument to his civic spirit. In an era when polite social discourse seems to be falling away, when heated argument and foul language seems to be taking the place of reason and thoughtful discussion of the very tough, very real problems our local and national society faces, Jacques Ruch was an exemplary model of an American citizen who intuitively understood that polite, if spirited, discussion was the real underlying driver of a working representational government and a civic society.
If we all strive to copy Jacques’ gracefully polite but energetic civic involvement, ours will be a better community in which to live and work, and this effort will truly be the best memorial to this remarkable gentleman that we can collectively create. It is one the writer believes Jacques would most appreciate.