EDITORIAL: Doctor, judge and banker: 3 great losses

If the goal is to leave a place better than you found it, then these three men can rest peacefully, knowing they met that mark.

This fall, North Idaho has lost Gene Marano, Charlie Gates and Ron Ouren. They represented three pillars of a strong community. Gene was a lawyer and then a judge; Charlie, a doctor; and Ron, a banker with a heart of gold.

All were longtime North Idahoans, men who could have lived and worked anywhere in the country and prospered. They chose the Coeur d’Alene area to help raise their families, ply their professions and, over many years, improve the quality of life around them.

Early in his career as a prosecutor and later, as a judge, Gene Marano earned a reputation as a man you didn’t want to mess with. Yet within his stolid and rigorous administration of law and order, compassion lived.

Judge Marano understood the relationship between addicts and the crimes they might commit, so rather than simply condemn the effect, he confronted the cause.

In 1998, he and Judge James Judd created Kootenai County Drug Court, the first of its kind in Idaho. Ever since then, hundreds of locals’ lives have been saved, and society has gained from their successful transition to healthy, contributing citizens.

We trust our doctors, but when people talk about putting their health in the hands of a consummate professional, urologists occupy an upper echelon of importance. Dr. Gates was the foremost urologist in the entire region, starting North Idaho Urology decades ago and building it into a practice that has helped many thousands of local men and women.

How important was his “job” to him? Well, according to his family, Charlie missed only one day of work in his entire career, and that was due to a personal medical emergency. Yet among many other ventures and adventures, he and beautiful wife Sarah found time to help create Coeur d’Alene Cellars, owned and operated by daughter Kimber.

Charlie, we raise our glass to you.

Up to the end, Ron Ouren looked like he could step into the batter’s box and blister line drives to all fields. He owned a 2000-watt smile and a willingness to help anybody, any time, any place.

As a banker, Ron saw money as a building block for businesses and individuals, a means to an end, never an end in itself. If you’re conjuring up an image of Jimmy Stewart as George Bailey here, you’re not far off.

In 2019, Ron was recognized as one of the region’s great volunteers. He sat in the prestigious Grand Marshal’s seat at the Fourth of July parade in Coeur d’Alene, and waved at the people he knew from his many years of service as a CDA Rotarian, North Idaho College and Coeur d’Alene High booster club member and leader, and board member of the North Idaho Fair Foundation, Kootenai Humane Society and Panhandle Parks Foundation.

In other words, just about everybody who lives here.

The departures of Ron, Charlie and Gene leave tremendous vacancies in our community. We honor these outstanding men, grieve with their families and look forward to seeing who steps up in their place.