by Ed Naile

You could say that Stretch was very comfortable in his own skin. His did not care a bit what people thought of him because he was always intent on doing the right thing, told you what he thought, and didn’t take much personally. In the world of politics that was refreshing.

If you were to make a movie about Stretch I think he would want it to be a Western, lots of shoot-em up, the good guys win and the bad guys get their due — but not that bad, just so they learned their lesson.

Stretch was your typical big, gruff, teddy bear.

And if any boring meeting, hearing, event, or occasion needed some “verbal adjustment” as in something in a loud deep voice presented from the audience, Stretch would always be there, more than willing to make the people who needed to cringe and the rest of us laugh.