Ask those associated with the Concordia Parish Police Jury what they think of Fred Falkenheiner, and you’ll hear certain words in common — words like “character” and “integrity.”

“He is, to me, what a public official should stand for ? honesty and integrity,” said Cathy Darden, jury vice president. “Although he took care of his own district (District 3), he was loyal to the whole parish. Whatever situation arose, he handled it with class and integrity.”

“I have always found him to be a man of character and integrity even when he was under personal attack,” said Robbie Shirley, the jury’s secretary-treasurer, who has worked with Falkenheiner 25 years. As president of the jury and former Finance Committee chairman, she said, he has conducted meetings “with a level head. He comes into a meeting and leaves the same no matter what has taken place.”

And Falkenheiner has won that praise the old-fashioned way — he has earned it through 30 years of service on the police jury, in the community and as a fixture of finance in the Miss-Lou, even during a bout with cancer in recent years. Yet they are things he would never think to say about himself.

“I’m not high profile,” he said, sitting in an office in Louisiana Central Bank’s Ferriday branch, where he is vice president and loan officer. “My mother used to say, ‘Don’t break your arm patting yourself on the back.'”

Yet Falkenheiner’s foray into public service started in an ordinary way. When he graduated from Louisiana State University, he returned to his native Vidalia to work at United Savings and Loan and found that many of his old friends were still in the Miss-Lou. So he had the area-wide contacts needed to make a successful run for office. Then he read an article that told of the importance of becoming involved in government and decided to try his hand in it.

He chose a difficult time to run. In the late 1960s, the police jury did not have any black members, so the U.S. Department of Justice required them to have at-large elections.

When no black members were elected that way, majority black districts were drawn up, which resulted in black members being elected to the board. Finally, the new jury, including Falkenheiner, could be sworn in in March 1969.

“Fred was always willing to help me become a better police juror,” said Sammy Davis Jr., an ex-police juror who was one of the jury’s first black members. “He helped me do many things in my community. I listened to what he did and learned from it.”

Davis also described Falkenheiner as someone who kept careful track of both the jury’s finances and citizens’ concerns. “A couple of days ago, I visited him, and he was on the phone, asking somebody if the grass had been cut,” Davis said. “He stays on top of it.”

“He’s done a good job in leading the jury,” said longtime Juror Gene Allen. “I have a lot of respect for him and hate to see him leave. He has a lot of knowledge, and I’m sure he would have done a good job at leading the jury into the next millennium.”

From his early days of service on the police jury, Falkenheiner went on to take a place of leadership, serving as either president or finance chairman of the jury every year but two. “It’s something I enjoy, and it’s a chance to give back to Vidalia, which has given much to me in the last 60 years,” he said.

Even after 30 years in office, he said he would not change a vote he has made but he does regret that, because police jury funds are often tight, he could not always grant citizens requests. “I’m just disappointed I couldn’t please everybody,” he said.

Still, he is proud of what jurors, by working as a team, have achieved during his time there — such as building the parish airport’s terminal, constructing the current courthouse and, after more than 20 years of delays, getting the Vidalia Canal improved.

“It’s rewarding when you’re driving down the highway, and you look to the side of the road and there they are, working on it after all this time,” he said, adding that he hopes to see the canal extended even further in the future. “It should handle that areas drainage needs for years to come.”

Falkenheiner quickly added that many people have worked together to make such accomplishments happen. That list includes, but is not limited to, his fellow jurors; Shirley, who runs the police jury office and “keeps us out of trouble”; and Parish Engineer Bryant Hammett. And Falkenheiner gave special thanks to residents who have sold or given up cherished family land to the jury so that needed public works improvements could be made.

Yet life has not always gone smoothly for Falkenheiner, especially in recent years. First his wife, Phyllis, was diagnosed with breast cancer. Then in August 1997, Falkenheiner himself was told he had cancer as well. As a result surgeons had to remove part of his pelvic bone, so he now walks with the aid of a walker or cane.

Cancer was a factor in his decision not to run for reelection for two reasons. First, his battle with the disease meant that he could not attend all of the meetings and other functions at which he would have liked to represent the jury.

“I’m not a quitter,” he said. “But it’s not fair to my district or the whole parish not to represent them at all of these things. I don’t want to give just 95 percent to anything.”

The disease has also refocused his priorities, causing him to cherish his family even more.

Recently Falkenheiner sent a letter to his surgeon. Enclosed in the envelope were pictures of Falkenheiner holding his son Lee’s twin babies and standing beside daughter Ellen at her wedding. (Falkenheiner also has an older son, Philip.)

“I sent it to him and said, ‘See what I’ve been able to accomplish with your help?'” he said.

Falkenheiner does not focus on the hardships the disease has caused. Instead, he spoke of how his wife helped him get through that tough time. “She’s an angel,” he said softly. “You can’t pay someone to do the kind of things a spouse does for you.”

And he was also touched by how many friends sent get-well cards and letters during that time, letters he has kept in bags at his home. In fact, the first thing he plans to do with his Monday nights — since they soon will not be taken up with jury meetings — is write thank-you notes to the people that have given him encouragement or donated blood for him. He also plans to visit with other cancer patients to pass that support along.

Another thing that continues to give Falkenheiner a boost is his work at Louisiana Central Bank. As vice president and loan officer, he enjoys helping people get the money they need to make the dream of a new house or car come true. “I do love my customers,” said Falkenheiner, who worked for Armstrong Tire as a regional credit manager for 10 years before joining Louisiana Central in 1981.

Other than working, spending time with family and friends and attending the games of his beloved LSU baseball team every chance he gets, Falkenheiner isn’t sure what the future holds. But he knows this is not the end of his service to the community — not by a long shot. He feels that bouncing back from cancer — Falkenheiner said he feels better now than he has in the last two years — means that God has some other purpose for him.

“You get down to the point where you’re not even supposed to be here, and you get a second chance,” he said.

Darden said she and other jurors are counting on Falkenheiner still being just a phone call away to give them sound advice. “He knows a lot of good things about the parish and about how to deal with people,” Darden said.

But Falkenheiner is not ruling out another run for police juror in the future, either. “Who knows?” he said. “I may get off this cane and do it again.”