As I read the stirring remarks from Lou Jordon, an EMT from the mainland, about the man that Kirk Grybowski was, about what Kirk gave to the world but more specifically to these islands, I was struck by the deafening silence from government officials.
Normally when a dedicated public servant of Kirk's ilk dies, the politicos are falling all over each other, trying to get their condolences and their names published.
Not this time. Why is that?
Kirk Grybowski gave 37 years of his life – more than half of it – to the Virgin Islands. He and his wife Judy spent those 37 years in service – mostly government service – to the people of these islands that they loved.
Those who knew Kirk knew the blows he was dealt in trying to offer Virgin Islanders a better quality of life. And to many who needed emergency services, he provided the very gift of life itself.
But after the blows ended, Kirk always got up, dusted himself off, grumbled a bit and went on to serve another day.
As those who have read Jordan's remarks can see, much of what he gave was on his own nickel and his own time.
Kirk didn't do it for the reward of driving a brand new government-issue SUV, or to get his name on a plaque or a parking space. He didn't do it to "get credit" – good thing, too, because he rarely got credit for much of what he did.
He did it because he loved people and life and these islands.
So, why the silence? Is it because he wasn't born here? Is it because he was a vocal opponent of nepotism, apathy, mediocrity, over-development and corruption?
Whatever the reason, a great cross-section of people here and abroad have voiced their great sorrow at the loss of this good man. We at the Source join them in that expression of grief over Kirk's death.
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