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'This place built me'

by BILL BULEY
Staff Writer | August 14, 2021 1:09 AM

COEUR d’ALENE — It’s estimated about 2 million people have called Idaho home since 1985, the year the Idaho Hall of Fame was founded.

Fewer than 200 have been inducted into that nonprofit, and for good reason.

“It’s a very high criteria that the Hall of Fame has,” said board member Tony Stewart. “Our criteria is so high we’ve only inducted 198 people.”

Seven more joined that exclusive group during an hourlong program at North Idaho College on Friday attended by about 50 people.

Each received praise and a plaque in honor of their contributions for making an impact “in their communities, the state, the nation and in many cases, the world.”

They were:

• Dr. Jack Riggs, medicine and public service

• The late Fr. Bill Wassmuth, religion and human rights

• Mike and Sholeh Patrick, journalism, free press and speech

• Bruce Reed, national government public service

• Christie Wood, human rights and public service

• Robert Singletary, history and the humanities

They join the likes of baseball great Harmon Killebrew, Chief Joseph, former Idaho Gov. Phil Batt, and Barbara Morgan, former astronaut.

Reed, a Coeur d’Alene High graduate, Rhodes Scholar and deputy chief of staff for President Joe Biden, called it a great honor.

"I’m humbled to join such a distinguished group,” he said.

He said he considered himself the luckiest man on Earth to have grown up in North Idaho, the son of the late Scott Reed and Mary Lou Reed, who was in the audience. Both, he said, were great role models who fought a lifetime of uphill battles.

He recalled fighting, and losing, some of his own battles.

“Growing up trying to hand out Democratic bumper stickers at the county fair to cowboys with pickup trucks and gun racks, you learned about rejection at an early age,” he said, smiling as the crowd laughed. “That has been a great blessing in my political career.”

Reed said the Idaho of his youth was a place where all people are treated equally, and that hasn’t changed.

“I learned that politics matter, but more important, it’s not the only thing that matters,” he said.

“In every way, this place built me,” he added.

Reed, who also worked in the administration of President Barack Obama, said Idaho was a hometown that would make anybody an optimist.

“Every time we’re here, I ask myself, 'What were we thinking? Why did we trade Lake Coeur d’Alene for the swamps of D.C.?' But the truth is, we never really left.”

He said not a week goes by without President Biden reminding him how lucky he was to have Idaho roots.

“I go to work every day knowing we have to do everything in our power to turn the corner on climate change,” Reed said. “So our children’s children can skate in the winter across Cougar Bay, so we can finally get rid of this damn smoke and have our summers back.”

Christie Wood, a retired police sergeant, a member of the North Idaho College board and the Coeur d’Alene City Council, has given 26 years to the education of youth and adults.

She said she is grateful “for this opportunity to walk among the giants in Idaho history and present."

Wood said public service, whether in education or government, is similar to being and advocate of human rights and the quest for equal treatment for all.

“It’s been a natural fit for me to pursue both,” she said.

Wood said she has more to do.

“I intend to keep paying it forward for many years to come,” she said. “I have a lot left in me.”

Robert Singletary, a historian, educator and musician, was praised as being an ordinary man doing extraordinary things.

He said he has been fortunate to work with kids and adults throughout his career, and credited others for helping him along the way.

“How did I get where I am?” he asked.

He said he was proud to stand alongside so many ordinary people who influenced his life in great ways.

“It’s all the people that do things because it needs to be done,” he said.

Mike Patrick, managing editor of The Press, said his wife, Sholeh, Press columnist, was unable to attend — and everyone noticed his better half was missing.

“Where’s Sholeh?” he laughed as he recounted a common question people asked.

Patrick said he appreciated the honor, particularly as he recently went through a fight with cancer.

“I don’t take any day for granted anymore, so to have this happen at this time is extraordinary," Patrick said.

But he said he didn’t feel he deserved the award, but rather, those around him should get the recognition.

“I have been surrounded by the finest journalists I’ve ever worked with,” he said.

He thanked the Hagadone family, which owns The Press.

“You don’t have a decent community newspaper if you don’t have ownership that stands by you every time you piss off somebody in the community, which is about at least 365 days a year if you’re doing your job," he said, smiling.

He also credited readers and advertisers.

“If they aren’t with us every step of the way, we’ve got nothing,” he said, then added, “I know who deserves the credit and it starts with my wife, but it really is everybody else.”

Riggs was unable to attend. The Coeur d'Alene High School graduate served in the Air Force, created North Idaho Immediate Care centers, served in the Idaho Senate and was Idaho's 38th lieutenant governor.

Speaker Freeman Duncan said Riggs was deserving of the award. Riggs was described as “a local boy who made good” and “always doing something for the community."

The late Bill Wassmuth probably should have been inducted years ago, Duncan said, noting the honor was well deserved as Wassmuth led the fight for human rights as executive director of the Northwest Coalition Against Malicious Harassment and a leader of the Kootenai County Task Force on Human Relations.

Mary Lou Reed said Wassmuth was a warm human being and an effective fighter for human rights.

“He really was very, very special," she said.