on Wednesday of this week in a quiet, flower filled chapel, we paid our
final respects to a man. You and I love. What words can we find now to
express our respect for him. How can we voice our understanding of the
qualities which made him our friends, Who was this man? What did he do to
earn the affection and the respect and the love of his neighbors and his
associates, and of those who knew him only by the words others said about
him. Twice he stood before the people of this community as a candidate for
the office of Sheriff, and twice you gave him your votes and your
confidence in the dark hours of sunday morning last that it must to all
men. Death came to Ernest wrote, he was the high Sheriff of Maricopa
County, but in this moment of our grief at his departure, I'm thinking not
of the office he had, nor of his successful elections, but rather of Ernie
roach the man. It's commonplace to say kind things of a man after he's
gone. Ernie wrote, she was not a common man in a world of grasping,
struggling self seekers. His strength was devoted to helping others. He
had no sympathy for the criminal, but he had a great capacity for
understanding the people whose troubles brought them to the Sheriff's
office. He possessed patience and tolerance to a degree far beyond any
other man I've ever known, but he had a deep and militant contempt for the
conniving, vicious criminals, who played on the weakness of others. He
fought for the cause of decency and justice and made no apology to those
who favored compromise with the powerful forces of graft and greed. The
law was his sacred trust to any roach. Friendship was a living thing. It
brought him out in the middle of the night to help people. It took him
into danger on 100 occasions. It cost him the political support of some
less tolerant men. He was then a man whose friendship endured through
adversity and prosperity, men on whom great authority is bestowed react
differently. Some become conscious of their power, some use their position
to gain favors. Some men automatically take it as their right to enjoy all
the attributes of power. Ernie Roach was not this type of man. Authority
in his hands was preserved as a sacred trust, a grant from the people to
be used only in their interest. There was no swagger, no conceit in the
makeup of Sheriff roach, he had a reverence and respect for authority.
Polar position, had little influence on him, and yet his every official
act was tempered with a kind of mercy of father has for his son. Ernie
Roach was not a learned man in the sense of the softest who measure
learning by books and college degrees, but he had an understanding of life
far wiser and more accurate than those who gain their human experience
secondhand through books. There are certain words and phrases I remember,
which were peculiarly the property of Ernest wrote. They were a reflection
of the man himself, sincere forthright honest. When his friend Lon Jordan
died, Ernie Roach became the logical successor and he said to me, this is
not what I want. I don't want the front seat, I wanted things to go on as
they were with lawn and just work here and do my best. But the people put
him in the front seat, they made him the man, and for those brief months
he served as the man. I watched him and my respect for him and my pride in
him increase. He was essentially shy in retiring. A quality observers
might say would defeat a politician. He wanted his men to have the credit
for their achievements. He did not seek the headlines for the front page.
There was no pretense in earnest, wrote now the High Sheriff is an
important figure and one might expect the High Sheriff to be preoccupied
with more important matters and the concern of a mother with a boy who was
in trouble or a man who had a row with his neighbors or a husband and wife
who couldn't get along. But I've seen any road step to the public counter
in the sheriff's office and give his personal attention to the people who
came seeking help in the political campaign just ended. Ernie wrote the
candidate for nomination, had one opponent, Ernie wrote, the candidate
refused to use the power of Ernie wrote the Sheriff in his own behalf. He
refused to resort to personalities. He made no answer to some of the
unwise and unfounded political charges made against him. And of this he
said to me that boy has as much right for the sheriff as I have. He
believed in thrift and honesty and dealing above the table. He accepted
minor reverses and setbacks philosophically, and when things went wrong,
I've heard him say, that's the way of the world, That's the way of the
world. He believed passionately in the democratic processes and in the
wisdom and the right of the people to govern themselves. And he gave of
himself without reservations to serve you and me. These then are the
things we remember his tolerable, his loyalty, his courage, and his
devotion to duty. In the nearly 16 years he served us as Deputy Sheriff.
We learn to love him for these qualities. What can a man purchased with
his few allotted years on this earth riches, power, fame, or the respect
and the love of his fellow men? Ernie roach was never a rich man. He
struggled as most of us do to pay the rent and the groceries and to keep
his Children well and healthy and to give them the things we all want for
our Children. Power was never a personal thing with him. He had no use for
fame, but he enjoyed the solid respect, his ability as a peace officer
returned for him and he enjoyed and respected the friendship in the
approval of his fellows, if being loved and honored and trusted. Makes a
man great. Then I say Ernie wrote was a great man. If being honest and
trustworthy, loyal, makes a man great. Then any roach was a great man. In
the silent grief of those people who fill that chapel on Wednesday last
there was to be seen sincere testimony proclaimed before the world, what
this man had done and been you and I will long remember the personal
things which made Ernie roach dear to us. The years will pass, and this
land of ours will grow, but in the hearts of the rich men and the poor men
, and the farmers, and the laborers, and the politicians, and the
businessmen, and the lawyers, and the plain people, all those who mourn
his passing there will live forever. The memory of Ernest Rose, Sheriff of
Maricopa.