It’s no longer enough to describe or acclaim a man, especially a recently deceased man, just as “a good man.” That phrase means too little, it seems, to many people these days. It’s more acceptable and complimentary to describe a man with words like “courageous,” or “unselfish,” or “visionary,” or as “a very wealthy man famous for his charitable contributions to the poor or the sick.”
But may I tonight dissent from such flowery but popular ways of talking and say instead that to be truly “a good man” or woman is the greatest achievement for any human being.
Fortunately for us who came to know him well, Ev Hosley was a genuine, unblemished, easy to recognize and admire, 100% “Good Man.”
Everyone liked him for his happy disposition, his sharp wit, and his never- ending desire and success in making life itself much more fun and inspiring for everyone. Hos was always able to make the crowd happy -- no matter how controversial the subject matter of the evening or argumentative by nature the participating lawyers!!!
He worked his magic on behalf of the Yale Hockey Association, on behalf of Mory’s, The New Haven Lawn Club, the Country Club, and even with high tension business leaders on the Boards of the First New Haven National Bank, The Peoples’ Bank, and The Grace New Haven Hospital. No wonder he received the Mory’s Cup for “conspicuous service to Yale.” He could also have been easily cited by Yale University for distinguished service “for God, for country and for Yale.” In one sentence, Hos was the faultless, unblemished, paragon we all should hope to be or to become.
To all these words of mine a cynic or a skeptic might respond by saying, “All that talk about Hos and his virtues doesn’t mean much. He didn’t create a new World or even a new New Haven. His name will not go down in history, even in local history. He was a good guy, OK, but no one except his family members, ---- probably, ---- will be changed or improved or made richer or happier by what Hos did...”
To which I reply ---- “would that every family possessed an Ev Hosley within its ranks!” “Would that every town or city had a hundred Ev Hosleys, or a thousand citizens of dedication, intelligence, and energy equal to his!!”
Our country and all the world would be different and much, much better. In fact, if America could find and enroll a million Ev Hosleys into a new Army, not of warriors or killers, but of citizens dedicated to service of their fellow human beings, we could create a new nation not only of liberty and justice for all (as our Declaration of Independence states), but a new Nation capable of transforming the whole world, by our example, into a new 21st Century free of strife, egotism, selfishness, envy, anger, and fear.
Hosley had none of those vicious, narrow-minded qualities in his mind, body or soul. So what the world needs, what we all need, is tens of thousands of H. Everton Hosleys. May he rest in peace with God and may we stir ourselves up and try to become more like him! Good men, Good women, Good families. For that’s what would make a good world ...an H. Everton Hosley world for the 21st Century!
