Remembering Todd Gale
“Miserable. Miserable.”
“A lot of people are going to be crying.”
“I would tell people needing help with their bill to go see Todd Gale. He helped them every time.”
“He was a good guy.”
Those are among the shocked laments the whole city was having Feb/ 13 when we learned that Todd Gale had died at 52, having led the Columbus Light and Water Department for 15 years.
Professionally, he worked with a quick smile under stresses that were continual but unpredictable while leading a department of 88 people. And not their efficiency in dealing with the icy weather this past week. His death is a tremendous loss for our city, as The Dispatch noted in detail in its excellent editorial on Feb. 14.
A Light and Water man told me that, two weeks ago, he was getting ready to put gasoline into a company truck. Who pulled up, greeted the crew and started the pump? General Manager Todd Gale.
Personally, Todd radiated friendliness and good will. He tended to see things comically, in the old definition of comedy: coming together, overcoming trouble, setting things right at the end. His death is thus a big loss for the many people he sustained through that good-humored outlook and a wink that said, “We can do it. Things will be OK.” His obituary correctly called him “a mentor and a friend.”
It’s impossible to say from outside, but some of us standing outside the funeral home had the feeling that, just because of Todd’s own cheerful outlook, the atmosphere was not as mournful as you would expect at the funeral for a man so young.
The shock of that weekend will fade for most people. The Light and Water bucket truck pulled away from the front of the funeral home and headed on to its duties. The American flag in front of the CLW headquarters moved up to the top of the pole the next day. And Todd’s friends will gather to celebrate him with increasing laughter and to toast their own good fortune in having had him for a friend.
George Hazard
Columbus
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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