Remembering Sheriff Durante

Early on in my career as editor of the Times Herald in Norristown sometime in 2001, I wrote an editorial in support of the way Montgomery County Sheriff John Durante handled a situation involving his deputies.
From then on, our paths crossed professionally and personally many times over the years. I once sat with him in the owner’s box at Veterans Stadium, shooting the breeze during a game between the Phillies and the Dodgers. We served together on the advisory board of the Montgomery County Coaches Hall of Fame.
If my job required me to talk to him in an official capacity, I always found him to be credible and honest in dealing with the county’s business. If there was no official business to conduct, John was always ready with a back-slapping story, willing to occasionally bend and elbow and toss in a few profanities while doing it.
I considered it a unique relationship between an elected public official and a journalist based on mutual trust and respect.
John called me Monday morning, Feb. 8. He had something cooking with his good pal, Dodgers Hall of Fame manager Tommy Lasorda, a Norristown native, that he wanted to share with me. We talked about John’s pending trip to Florida for spring training, one that he took nearly every year. He knew that I always liked to talk baseball and he was more than willing to share baseball stories with me. I always yukked it up when John told a story.
Less than 48 hours later, John died at home from a massive heart attack. Despite some previous heart problems, his sudden death has shocked many in our local communities. His funeral is this week.
I considered him a friend. I respected him, I liked him and I’ll miss him.