Lawrence P Hauber

According to Idaho Vital Statistics, Lawrence P Hauber died on September 3, 2013.  He was 81.  I fought back and forth with myself about deciding to write about this  here but overcame those reservations and  decided to do so. It has been a month and I have looked for a death notice or obit for Larry in vain and  for whatever reason, the family has decided to grieve in private.    I don't know and offer no speculation as to that reason.  I think I have communicated to anybody who reads this that this blog is an outlet for me. As well as telling myself and Lisa's story.   Inasmuch as I have no desire to offend anybody, I would like to provide some reflection about Larry here.  This does not come easy to me because there has been many a funeral of various people who have had some meaning to me and I have chickened out of going.  I should have just to show my respect and in turn have no hard feelings of anybody who misses mine.   To the point though, Larry was kind of a mentor to me having initially hired me to be a probation parole officer exactly thirty years ago, In Burley and then Twin Falls, Idaho. A position I held for nearly 24 years and retired at in the very same pay grade when I was 53.  (I am 59 now)   A very visible, controversial  and flamboyant guy, I remember his interview with me in a motel room in Boise with another District Manager at the time. It was October of 1983 and I was 28 years old.  Going through a list of questions of which a point value was attached, or was supposed to be in order to be quantitative, he would add some comment or other, "boy this is dumb" or "what the hell do they mean by this" after reading the question, or" say what you want, I just don't care.  What a load of crap".  It was pretty obvious Larry wanted to hire his guy and cared less for format.  I worked for Larry the next several years, probably eight, until he retired as my boss.  This was kind of the tone of his leadership.  I learned a lot about state government during this time.  I also learned about the reality of government and sadly was educated about corruption in government as well. Maybe I will write about that someday.   Larry was one of those fearless bottle of whiskey in the drawer and ankle holster kind of leaders who would have probably been better served with a yellow feather or two here and there, maybe a little less whiskey, but who am I to talk.  But his style worked for him.  He was not afraid to stand up to his bosses if he felt the need and could be heard up the hall yelling on the phone at a bureaucrat or two on any given day each week. But Larry could also polish the apple with the best of them.   Larry liked attention and often notified the local press of new developments in our field and was comfortable with being interviewed, showing us in a pretty favorable light. It was not a rare event that the local news was covering us about something or other.  County sheriff's and police chief's in our jurisdiction may not have liked him, but they greatly respected him and we were highly regarded as a state agency.  I like to think we did and were involved in some pretty impressive things back then. We enjoyed that kind of respect from the State Police on down. Larry rubbed shoulders easily with high government officials and legislative leaders who came to visit him or regularly called to visit or request an opinion.  Larry could  call the Govenor of the state if he felt the need.  Many high profile folks were eager to ride with PO's then to experience what we experienced, visiting dangerous felons in the middle of the night. At that time by ourselves before cell phones and radios, I guess was considered a little Don Quixotic.  There are also lots of harrowing war stories that could be told here but I'll forgo them. We were allowed to be armed but had to purchase the weapon ourselves.  (There occurred very little training at that time and many an officer carried target load "wadcutters" as duty ammo without any intermediate tools i,e, pepper spray, just handcuffs).   And I also can remember local prominent attorney's coming to our office in the hopes of acquiring a recommendation for a District Judge appointment.  Larry's recommendation was considered that important.  Most importantly, working for Larry at that time was fun.  Every morning coffee was held in Larry's office and local event's were discussed, examined and reexamined.  Disregarding political correctness, there was an attempt to find humor in everything.  It was a good way to start the day.  As an employee you felt valued and supported.  Larry never left you to swing in the wind. And finally, there was a sense of mission in what we were and what we were trying to accomplish back then that I more or less attributed to Larry.   That sense of mission disappeared in subsequent years in that occupation as it devolved into something else.  Sadly as well as the pride one held in his job. With the exception of some quality individuals who chose to remain unrewarded, so too did the status that the department once enjoyed disappear with the law enforcement community.  

I could go on but won't.  With the very rare exception, I have not been privileged to witness that kind of leadership since. Certainly not the whole package. Larry had his detractor's and he certainly had his demons. Whether those demons were amplified by the idleness of retirement, I have no idea and don't wish to know. I simply wanted to express some deserved remembrance of the man.

RIP Larry.