Emon Mahony will attend the last meeting of his seven-year term on the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Friday when the commission votes on chronic wasting disease regulations.
Mahony's was a challenging era, ending with the beginning of an even more challenging era.
Of the 22 members of the commission I have covered in my 11 years on this beat, there's never been another like Mahony, and there probably won't be another like him again.
It is hard to write about someone with whom I have had such a complicated relationship in the limited confines of a column. The best summation is a paraphrased quote from Peter Paul von Greiffenberg in W.E.B. Griffin's novel, Brotherhood of War, The Lieutenants.
"Among gentlemen, adversaries need not be enemies."
An El Dorado lawyer and jack of many political and economic trades, Mahony is a multifaceted, multidimensional character. He is a swirl of contradictions, with a contrarian streak that has confounded and frustrated every commissioner in his term.
Mahony's first few years on the commission were extremely controversial and divisive. We covered them thoroughly when they were fresh, so there's no need to rehash them.
Mahony weathered those storms, and he adapted. Ultimately, he was effective, substantial and significant.
Even when this newspaper almost weekly demanded his resignation, Mahony was always accessible to me. He often took me aside to explain complex issues and gave me insight and perspective that helped me cover the commission's business more thoroughly and more accurately.
These chats were unvarnished and generally spin free because Mahony realized it was vital for the only reporter in the state that covers the commission to be informed.
Given the obvious risks, his candidness required no small amount of courage and trust.
Although he often exasperated other members of the commission, Mahony's contrarian streak was an asset. He was always swift to pounce on any weakness of a debate or scientific presentation. If a biologist, regional supervisor or upper-level administrator was not thoroughly prepared when he addressed the commission, Mahony picked him apart almost word by word. He so relished this role that a casual observer might believe he took it as sport.
It wasn't a game, though. Mahony considered it disrespectful to the commission for staff members to shade, withhold or underemphasize elements that might be crucial to a regulations proposal.
Other commissioners often winced when Mahony eviscerated an ill-prepared presenter. Sometimes he crossed the line of propriety, but Mahony considered the commission a jury that needed to consider all angles and potential vulnerabilities of a proposed regulation that would affect the state's sportsmen before rendering a verdict.
In recent years, I enjoyed our informal chats during lunch breaks at commission briefings. From these I learned we share a love for SKB shotguns, manual shift auto transmissions and turkey hunting.
These chats also exposed me to Mahony's vast knowledge of water-related issues, and to the legal twinings between the commission and federal partners such as the Corps of Engineers. In 10 minutes, he could explain in layman's terms a complicated subject that would otherwise take days of wandering through briefs, memoranda of understanding and conversing with attorneys.
Mahony was the one who persuaded a majority of the commission, against the advice of its director Loren Hitchcock, to reject a generous settlement from the Corps and appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court its case over damage the Corps inflicted on Black River Wildlife Management Area. The commission won the landmark Black River case, got a much larger financial settlement and forced the Corps to modify parts of its water management policy.
The true measure of a man is found in the selfless and compassionate things he does in private, when there's nothing to gain and nobody to impress.
I've seen that side of Emon Mahony, as well.
As Mahony acknowledged at the commission's last meeting in El Dorado, we got off to a rough start.
We worked through it, and he earned my respect as a commissioner, and my admiration as a gentleman.
Sports on 06/23/2016