When you make serving others the story of your life, there’s never a final chapter, because the legacy continues.

Pendleton Police Department Chief Stuart Roberts has been a blessing of leadership, understanding, empathy and intelligence not only for the city, but county, Eastern Oregon and the Pacific Northwest. Prior to Stuart becoming lead law officer, he was invited to my life science classes as a scientist/detective. Pick a job you love, he said, and every student recognized he was devoted to his family and to his one full-time job in which he lived and breathed.

You can’t be detached and effective. At the heart of his work style has been a belief that all the people in our communities matter, and should be treated as humans — the unhoused, the people with mental health struggles, the elderly, our youths, all of us. In the midst of the opioid epidemic, Chief Roberts sought help for the most marginalized people, teaching residents and all law enforcement agencies what it means to live in a community by example.

Having greatness thrust upon him in 2005, he stepped to up the challenge. In 2006-08, Umatilla County was designated a high intensity drug tracking area. Oregon politicians, accepting large donations from the Purdue pharma, the opioid suppliers, have been lousy listeners and obstacles for problem solving officers like Stuart Roberts.

Thank you for endless courage and for your professionalism. Please rest up and think about running for political office.

Sally Walden Sundin

Walla Walla, Washington