Greeson: A final service to call all of us to service

Jay Greeson

What kind of servant are you?

It's a question we ask ourselves far too infrequently, and one we assuredly will hear when this life ends.

Our city lost arguably its greatest servant over the weekend. The void left by Scotty Probasco's death is truly only measured by the footprints he left all over our town.

He was a great man, who was blessed to be born into privilege but worked and excelled like he was forever living paycheck to paycheck. He loved his Lord and his family and city, and he showed it in his actions and deeds and dedication.

His shadow, like the sadness of those who knew him, loved him and will surely miss him, is great. He did so much right that the funeral this week for the Cheerleader of Chattanooga will appropriately be a pep rally in a lot of ways.

It will be a celebration of his life. He was a brilliant and caring man who was successful by every measure, whether you asked his accountant or his Sunday school class.

It was a life well-lived and makes all of us wonder what will people say at our funerals.

I have two questions this morning that maybe only Mr. Probasco could answer (and would assuredly ask). But since he's gone home, we need to start considering this in our daily discussion.

First, who will be among the next generation of philanthropists in our town? Names like Probasco and Lupton and McDonald -- a generation of power brokers who made fortunes and fortunately contributed to our city's well-documented renaissance -- are gone. Their compatriots in the cause, such as Ruth Holmberg and Mai Bell Hurley, have also given more than anyone could imagine in a full lifetime of service, but they are in need of help.

We need a new list of champions, but the establishment of the Chattanooga we know and love today is as much due to the contributions of those great givers as is our connection to the river.

It's a perilous question in an age of ask, ask, ask. Our calendars are full and the thought of adding more seems somewhere between poison oak and a root canal on the desirability scale.

But our city has grown on the strength of Scotty Probasco and Jack Lupton and the hundreds of people who picked up, pitched in and put out an effort that completed our Scenic City transformation.

This cannot be government-induced. It must come from the heart, as it did with the wonderful man this city called Scotty. Maybe that's why everyone from senators on down passed along their praise of Mr. Probasco this weekend.

For that community spirit to continue, we need another volunteer collection of city stewards and public servants whowork for betterment on their own.

Secondly, how can we be like Scotty Probasco in our efforts to shape and improve where we live?

Rest assured, no matter who you are, we all are servants. You can be a leader or a common Jay with a thrice-weekly news column, but you are a servant. You can be a captain of industry, a captain of a baseball team or the captain of the USS Enterprise, and you are still a servant.

In fact, the bigger your role, the more important and vast your service likely will be.

We as Americans are free. We are given life and liberty and encouraged to pursue happiness, and that last one is only enhanced when we make our hometowns better.

Far too frequently, we wrestle about the semantics and the credit, when in truth the effort and time spent debating the problem was probably enough to solve the problem.

Because of Mr. Probasco, I for one am planning on being a better servant. To my family and my Lord and my city, because that's what he did.

We need more of that, especially now since the Lord obviously had an opening on his cheerleading team.

So what say you, Chattanooga? Can we be better servants?

I say yes, and I say thank you, Scotty Probasco, for showing us the way.

Jay Greeson's column will appear on Page A2 on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays. His sports columns are scheduled for Tuesdays and Fridays. You can read his online column the 5-at-10 Monday through Friday at timesfreepress.com after 10 a.m. Contact him at jgreeson@timesfreepress.com and follow him on Twitter at @ jgreesontfp.