This one is going to be easy - and incredibly hard.
In this job I get to meet a lot of elected officials and public servants.
Ted Erickson was the best.
We lost Edwin B. "Ted" Erickson Monday.
Maybe that's because he never really considered himself a politician.
What he was, first and foremost, was a gentleman.
If he came across as a reserved college professor, it was not by accident.
That's actually what Ted was.
He was a tenured professor of biology at Hamilton College in northern New York.
But he made his mark in public service here in Delaware County. He started a long, distinguished career as director of public health and eventually as chief administrative officer in Upper Darby.
In 1982, he was elected to Delaware County Council, serving as chairman from 1987 to 1989.
He went on to serve as regional administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency.
He returned to Delaware County as executive director from 1992 through 2001.
At that point he won a special election to fill the term of powerful Upper Darby state Sen.Joe Loeper. It was a very tough campaign against Democrat Melissa Maxman.
I served as the moderator for a debate between the two in a packed auditorium on the campus of Delaware County Community College.
Ted never wavered. Even in the toughest of political campaigns, he was easy to describe. In fact, I can do it in one word: Gentleman.
We had many conversations during that campaign and afterward. We did not always see eye to eye on policy.
Buy Ted knew I had a job to do. More than that, he respected it.
We were friends, and we remained so.
Ironically, he had reached out just before the holidays. He was offering an op-ed piece on a topic he was uniquely qualified to address: Climate change.
You can read that guest column here.
We exchanged emails, took self-deprecating jabs, and wished each other well for the holidays.
I had urged him to write more often.
As usual, he offered a deadpan response.
"I often write, but only in my head, where it stays because most of it isn't worth coming out."
I would beg to differ.
Everything that came out of Ted Erickson's mouth was eminently worthwhile.
He was the rarest of animals, a true gentleman politician.
And a friend.
Farewell to one more Delco icon.
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