Brent Hassert Was a Friend to Many Who Didn’t Know Him
By Nick Reiher
Growing up as a Catholic in Chicago, there were two things I did not count on:
Marrying a Lutheran and having a Republican as one of my very best friends.
Some of you know about Tammy and how we had probably the first Lutheran/Catholic-sanctioned wedding in southern Minnesota. Still going strong after 36-plus years.
Since I came to Will County in 1985, I have made friends with people of both political parties. And, believe it or not, when we got together, we didn’t always talk politics. We talked, and do talk, about life.
Brent Hassert did come in to my life because of politics. I began covering the Will County Board for the Herald News in 1987, the same year I met Tammy, and shortly after, Brent would call me on Mondays after the paper’s popular Pulse political column ran the day before.
“Hey,” he would say. “This is Brent Hassert. I saw you at County Board. How do I get in that Pulse column?”
I told him he’d need to do something funny and/or stupid. And for as long as the Herald News ran that column, he achieved one or the other fairly regularly. And he made it into more than a few county-related stories for doing some good stuff.
As I got to know him as a County Board member, legislator, party leader and lobbyist, I also saw him as a rare elected official, one who didn’t care who got the credit, so long as the people, in his district or not, got what they needed.
There is a good chance the Interstate 355 extension into Will County would not have happened, or happened a lot later, if he did not take that helicopter ride with former Gov. George Ryan to show him it was needed. From then on, it was firmly on the state’s radar.
That may be the most significant example, but there were many more, sometimes in other districts, across the aisle, when he was able to cut through red tape to get it done.
Like the long road to help restore and preserve the ecosystem at Prairie Bluff Preserve in Crest Hill and Lockport Prairie Nature Preserve in Lockport Township.
He got the idea while golfing at Prairie Bluff Golf Course, which he helped the Lockport Township Park District build by getting former Stateville land transferred to them. He saw development sprouting up to the west of the course and didn’t want that prairie to be lost.
We golfed that course many times, not usually in order of the holes, since he didn’t like to wait. Sometimes, while we were riding around, he would grouse about others getting credit for the projects he helped implement.
I would say, “Did you send out a press release?”
“Nah, I don’t blow my own horn.”
I would reply, “Well, ain’t no one gonna blow it for ya.”
This is cleaned up language, you understand. Unless it was for a story, we talked like the friends we were. When Brent and I were talking in front of his then-fiancée, Lee Goodson, she said she couldn’t believe how we talked to each other. Tammy would say the same thing.
(They should have heard the colorful hyphenated language I directed at him when he told me he gave away Cubs-Yankees tickets in 2003).
The four of us got to be good friends. I thought it would be fun at one point to vacation with them … until I heard the horror stories about the trips to Alaska, Hawaii and, my favorite, Machu Picchu.
Regardless, anyone could see Brent and Lee were meant for each other. Such a loving relationship that carried them through some of the most heartbreaking times for both of them, especially recently. They were lucky enough to have each other to lean on.
When I heard Brent had passed in his sleep in his chair at home August 29 after a long illness, I texted Lee, not wanting to bother her with a phone call. She asked how I knew; I said his brother, Earl, was kind enough to let me know.
In subsequent texts, Lee marveled and how quickly the word was spreading. I wasn’t surprised.
When you touch that many lives in so many different ways, people remember.
Whether or not you tooted your own horn.
Buddy, I’ll miss our breakfasts. And I sure wish we could have gotten out on the course at least one more time. But, I’m thankful for the times we did have.
And as I duff a shot, as I most certainly will, I’ll remember your instruction:
“Nice shot. Hit another one.”
If you have any special memories of Brent, ones that missed the headlines, please feel free to share them with me. I’d like to put together a nice tribute.
Nick Reiher is editor of Farmers Weekly Review.