OPINION

PAUL GREENBERG: Grandpa

Two out of three ain't bad. So we got to keep a couple of the grandkids while their older brother was off with their parents to enjoy the wonders of Manhattan in the brisk early fall. The kids were a joy. But what do kids in this state without loving grandparents do when they need someone to look after them and generally champion their cause? That's today's question and the answer comes in two words: Rich Huddleston.

Mr. Huddleston directs an organization whose name sums up its purpose: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families--a private, statewide nonprofit that both lobbies for more funds for these kids and their families and conducts research about their needs and the best ways to meet those needs. Which means he needs to be bilingual, speaking both the languages of compassion and that of the research scientist.

For the past couple of decades, Rich Huddleston has been engaged in one role or another in order to better kids' prospects in this state. Some of those roles he liked better than others. "I hated working in a bureaucracy," he recalls, "and not doing advocacy work." So he asked his predecessor as executive director of the organization, Amy Rossi, to take him on as director of research and fiscal policy for Arkansas Advocates, and in due course succeeded her as director of the whole operation when she left a year later.

Amy Rossi recalls that Mr. Huddleston was best at explaining the problems that lie in wait for Arkansas' kids and their families. "His writing style and ability to condense really complicated fiscal matters for our constituents and political stakeholders," she says, "was really helpful . . . . He has a real compassion as well as passion for helping those who can't help themselves."

How did Rich Huddleston wind up in Arkansas. anyway? He may have been born in North Carolina but was reared as an Air Force brat whose family moved every few years. He was dutifully working his way toward a doctorate in public administration before realizing that academia was not his cup of hemlock. That's when he snagged a just-created job as a public-policy analyst for Metroplan in the very center of the Natural State, and stuck with it and other policy-related jobs till he got the itch to do something more directly connected with helping kids and their hard-pressed families. And he's kept on trucking with Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families ever since--for which those families and indeed all of Arkansas can be grateful.

To quote Laura Kellams, who runs the Advocates' subsidiary branch in the northwestern part of the state: "People know that the only test for Rich is, 'What's best for kids.' That's really where it begins and ends for him.' " It's as clear that the man loves his work as it is that Arkansas has good reason to love--and respect--him in return.

Amy Rossi put it well: Advocacy for this state's kids and families "gets in your blood, your DNA. And you're never finished. He continues to toil away, and I admire his tenacity." If Rich Huddleston is compulsive about his job and his life's calling, there are far worse things a public servant could be compulsive about.

Why would anyone be so obsessed with the next generation? It's easy for a grandfather to understand. Here, let me tell you about my grandkids, maybe show you a few snapshots . . . .

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Paul Greenberg is the Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial writer and columnist for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Editorial on 10/25/2017

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