While I can’t claim to have known Hank Waters well, I did spend nearly 30 years reading every one of his daily editorials in the Columbia Daily Tribune. Hank and I shared similar views on very few things, however, we found ourselves in lockstep on what needed to be done with the Boone County Fairgrounds and with the lopsided lease negotiated between the Boone Hospital Board of Trustees and St. Louis-based BJC Healthcare. That small piece of common ground, and a cold refreshing Stag beer, was enough to forge a friendship. Regardless of how I felt about his sometimes left-leaning viewpoints, I admired his willingness to put himself in the line of fire to forge a salient dialogue about our beloved community.
Hank passed away in 2020 at the age of 90. With his death, Columbia lost a vital voice of reason and a compass point that often played a critical role in keeping our community moving forward. Whether or not you ultimately agreed with his viewpoint, no single person did a better job of framing the argument and then pointing out the potential consequences of an ill-advised decision. His institutional knowledge of the happenings in Columbia was unmatched. His daily editorials often reminded us of our previous mishaps and the unique triumphs that made our city one of the best places to live in America.
Over the course of five decades, Hank wrote more than 18,000 editorials (most likely a world record.) For a time, he also owned local radio station KFRU. From these powerful platforms, he not only served as a voice of reason but also as Columbia’s chief watchdog. From this bully pulpit, he gently influenced public policy, but more importantly, he simply paid attention to what was happening in every corner of our community. Public officials knew that they were on a relatively short leash as long as Hank Waters was at the helm. Perhaps this is the part of his legacy that I miss most. With few exceptions, it doesn’t seem like anyone is paying attention to what happens in City Hall, the County Commission chambers or the Columbia Board of Education.
Hank made it his habit to endorse candidates for local office. Though many often joked that his endorsement might be the “kiss of death” in an election cycle, local candidates lobbied hard to win his approval. Hank gave a courtesy interview to all who filed for public office and he screened each candidate with fairness and the appropriate amount of scrutiny. Whether these endorsements had any real effect on the outcome of an election, they were coveted by the candidates and served as a meaningful litmus test for his thousands of daily readers. I was blessed to receive his endorsement on at least two occasions.
Hank was a champion for transparency. If he were alive today, my guess is that he would have opined about the tendency of Columbia and Boone County’s elected officials to do business behind closed doors. Though it’s impossible to know for certain, he might have also been disappointed by the manner in which city and county leaders squandered the more than $60 million in American Rescue Plan (ARPA) dollars allocated to Columbia and Boone County. The secrecy of the process and the lack of accountability associated with how those funds were spent would have likely been the source of several editorials.
There’s an excellent chance that Hank would have been concerned by the slumping achievement in Columbia Public Schools and would have likely been able to offer sage advice on how to reverse the tide. The same is true for the homelessness crisis in our city. One of Hank’s strong suits was building bridges between disparate interests. I believe Hank would have challenged local leaders and the throngs of social service agencies in our community to streamline their funding and efforts toward workable solutions. He likely would have questioned the millions of dollars spent each year on this crisis and pondered the reasons why these dollars have had such a minimal impact. No doubt his heart would have been in the right place and the multitude of do-gooders in our community would have heeded his advice.
I realize that I’m treading on dangerous ground when trying to predict what the venerable HJW III would have surmised from today’s current events. There is, however, one thing I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty. He would surely be greatly disappointed by what the Gannett newspaper chain has done to what was once considered one of America’s best community newspapers. Hank was savvy enough to foretell the overall decline of the newspaper industry, but my guess is that he would have an unkind opinion about the gutting of the Columbia Daily Tribune. I’m glad he wasn’t around to see it.
Longing for the good ol’ days won’t bring Hank Waters back. However, my hope is that we, as a community, might remember why it’s important to pay attention to current affairs and the need to more regularly scrutinize the actions of public officials who have been entrusted to lead our community into the future with a vision for prosperity and an above average quality of life. Until that happens, we can only expect to see a further decline in the once-great city we call home.
