This Tuesday, there will be a funeral service for my lifelong friend, Leonard Thompson.

Leonard worked at this newspaper for more than 50 years prior to his retirement a few years ago. As it turned out, he actively worked for four generations of my family.

He was part of a club of people who were in the 50-year club at our place, including Joanne Smith, Buddy Hendley, Roy Houston, Italene Long and many others.

Leonard was one of those people who was always around. If you came in early or the middle of the night, it seemed he was always there. Some days, I would look up and he would suddenly appear in my office.

I have no idea whether he had a specific work schedule or if he ever left for that matter.

As far as I could ascertain, he was a permanent fixture.

When I was a teen, he taught me how to drive the forklift and feed inserts into the machines when the afternoon paper was printed.

If he ever called in sick, I never knew about it.

Some days when Leonard would drop by for a visit, we would laugh about my ancestors and some of the stories of the good old days.

Leonard also took pleasure in reminding me he moved my parents out of their house when I was an infant and he held me in his arms many times.

I knew he had been married and his wife had died of cancer. He told me about my grandfather’s support of him during those times. It clearly meant a lot to him.

He reminded me of a time when at the old lake place when he and co-worker Jesse Gee were cutting up when they were supposed to be working. Jesse got in hot water and Leonard laughed about it every time he mentioned it.

Only once did I see him without his trademark ball cap with a paratrooper pin front and center on top of the logo.

He occasionally brought letters to show me from the New York Giants football club offering him a tryout. Each time we looked at them together, he would remind me he had chosen to come to the paper and stay.

After a long visit, he would tell me he worried about me and that he wanted to be sure I was taking good care of myself. He also told me he prayed for me regularly, that he loved me and that we were family. He would wrap up the entire package by telling me he was proud of me.

What a guy.

I would thank him for his devotion and for making my day better and tell him I loved him too.

I would also remind him that I thought his last name was really Butler (our company founder’s surname) and we would have a good laugh about it.

Leonard has gone on to his final reward now and I hope he and my family members are enjoying getting caught up.

Au revoir my dear old friend.