Community leaders reflect on passing of Clint Hollingsworth

by Dan McClelland

The community was deeply saddened by the untimely death last week of new Town Supervisor Clint Hollingsworth and many thoughts from local officials reflected that deep loss.

At their regular monthly meeting Wednesday- the day after his death- the Tupper Lake Village Board members each paid tribute to Clint and his many contributions to the community, and particularly those he made during his years on the village board as trustee.
Mr. Clint resigned this fall as village trustee to step into the town supervisor's job following his election in November.

At the start of Wednesday's meeting Mayor Paul Maroun asked Clint's long time friend Ron LaScala to begin.

Trustee LaScala, who was introduced to Clint by his best friend, Adam Hurteau, when they were teenagers, was very close to Clint for many years- and grew closer in recent years as colleagues on the village board.

“Clint was proud to serve Tupper Lake for more than two terms on the village board and he worked well with everyone sitting in this room tonight,” Mr. LaScala began.

He said Clint was very “excited” to be beginning this new phase of community service as town supervisor.

Among his many “wishes” for the community of Tupper Lake was that the “people of Tupper Lake would go in the right direction. “He strongly advocated for positive change here!”

Among those changes he envisioned and endorsed, according to Mr. LaScala, was the “revitalization of Big Tupper Ski Area and the Tupper Lake Country Club.” He said he longed to see the golf course facility become a year round attraction here- a place for people to “socialize and recreate” on the trails there each winter.

“On a personal note, I've known my buddy since we were about 14 years old. We played a lot of games as kids, grew up and ended up here together on the village board.”

Ron remembered the times, as teenagers, they used to slide on sleds and such behind Clint's four wheel drive Eagle.

Ron said he was “blessed” for the opportunity to serve on the village board with his good friends Clint and Jason McClain, and together try to bring meaningful and positive change to the community.

Ron was a frequent visitor to the Hollingsworth home on Lindsay Ave. where their families socialized. He said in recent years he and Clint would often pick a local political topic and verbally spar- each of them playing devil's advocate to the other.

Ron said Clint nicknamed him the honey badger, for his tenacity and his unwillingness to give up easily in any public or private debate.

“My friend Clint will be deeply missed by this community!”

“I hope that everyone understands that everyone in public service gives up something very precious and that's time and you never get time back. Clint gave up a lot of his time to try to make Tupper Lake better, because he loved this place and he loved its people and he loved his life!”

Deputy Mayor Leon LeBlanc, who like Mr. LaScala, served at least foujr years on the village board with Clint, called his colleague “a big asset” to the village and its board. “When he left to go to the town this fall, he left with many good directions. He had some great plans for the town. He will be deeply missed!”

“To lose someone who you have worked closely with for years” and accomplished all the things we as board members did in recent years is very painful.

“Clint was a good man and my heart and my prayers go to his family.” Mr. LeBlanc too called him a local leader who will be deeply missed.

Trustee Jason McClain said he knew Clint well long before they were elected to the village board.

He said the senior trustee was very “supportive” of his efforts during his first year on the board last year.

Jason said he worked for Clint in his contracting business from the time he started it until he left in 2011 to go to college to obtain his nursing degree. “He was very supportive of me when I made that decision. Clint always promoted growth. When I worked with him he always thought that someday he would be mayor, but chose to run for supervisor instead.”

“He will be very much missed by all his many friends and by his family, as well as this board.

Trustee David “Haji” Maroun served with Mr. Hollingsworth on the board for a handful of years before stepping down a year ago and returning to fill Clint's position this fall when he resigned to become supervisor.

“Clint was a great guy. He worked hard during his time. He always worked for the community. He loved it!”

Trustee Maroun said Clint was “always very respectful” of the people he worked with at the village.

“He was a great husband, a great father and a good friend to many...he will be missed!”

“On behalf of the Village of Tupper Lake and the community of Tupper Lake, we are all sad to lose a colleague and a friend of this community,” Mayor Paul Maroun said when it was his turn to pay tribute to the trustee.

“To Alison, Cash and Lily our prayers and deepest sympathies,” he offered.

“Clint sat to the right of me at the board table for years and told me many times he planned to assume the mayorship when I retired. We talked often about it. He deeply loved Tupper Lake. He liked everything here, from the library to the electric department which he directed for years.”

The mayor said in village deliberations and debates at the board “he had the ability to calm things down, ” especially when things would become heated “between myself and some of my brethren at times.”

“Clint also had the ability to learn quickly and to do what was right for Tupper Lake!”

“He once told me that Ron LaScala had told him the only way to win an election in Tupper Lake was to switch political parties and become a Republican. At the recent GOP caucus, when he won that night, he won big!”

The mayor noted that while he knew Trustees McClain and LaScala knew Clint better than he did, “I knew him when he was a baby because his family, on his mother's side, lived right next door to me!”

“Clint will certainly be missed by myself, by this board, by the town board and by the entire community” because as trustee and most recently as town supervisor he had, as Trustee LaScala said, “a vision and a plan for the mountain, and plans to work closely with this village board to make this community a much better place for everyone.”

“Thank you, Clint, for all you did for all of us! You will always be in our prayers!”

Deputy Town Supervisor Mary Fontana, who was appointed to that post by the new supervisor at his only town board meeting in January and who presided in Clint's absence at the town board's February meeting, said last week she was deeply saddened by his passing.

“It's a big loss for Tupper Lake,” she began. “It's difficult to find the right words” to reflect the scope of that loss.

“Clint was a dedicated family man and a dedicated community man! He had big dreams for Tupper Lake!”

“I'm sorry Clint won't be here to witness some of the great things” coming for Tupper Lake- many of which were in his dreams.

Ms. Fontana said she knew Clint before their community service in their various business dealings- he as a contractor and she in the insurance business.

She lamented Clint won't see his dreams for the town board's involvement in Tupper's future growth come to fruition.

Councilwoman Tracy Luton said she will miss the opportunity to serve with Clint on the town board. “He was very good on the village board. He had the best interests for Tupper Lake at heart. He was a great guy, a great family man!”

Ms. Luton said she believed Clint would have been a great town supervisor. “He had the ability to listen to others and compromise!”

“My heart is broken by his death!” she asserted. “I would have liked to have seen what Clint could have done as supervisor. Unfortunately for the community, we'll never know!”

While new Supervisor Hollingsworth and new Town Councilman John Gillis both joined the new town board together, they knew each other for years in their business capacities- Clint as a major contractor here and John as a skilled cabinet-maker.

“As a contractor, Clint set the bar high and its showed throughout his crew,” John told the Free Press last week.

“I always enjoyed working with Clint” on our various projects over the years.

John said he brought business savvy and quality workmanship to each project “and he did well, as result.”

“When he was hired to do a job, he and his crew went out there and got it done,” which resulted in building a solid reputation as a top notch and very reputable contractor, according to Mr. Gillis.

“The projects we worked together on weren't simple projects. There was a lot of complexity to them and Clint was good at fitting all the pieces together.”

Many of them too were both large in size and scope, he admitted.

“Clint definitely had a passion for Tupper Lake. He really, really did. He had a vision for the town and I remember telling him after we got elected this fall, I can't wait to do this journey with you!”

John said in the short time they worked together in recent months Clint had already changed his perspective on a few things. He had a great perspective on many local issues and a great way of articulating it...I am totally going to miss that!”

"Clint was ready to lead, he was always working to better our community, he understood risk, he knew how to build, he was interested in seeing Tupper Lake thrive!" is how Councilman Rick Donah described him. “I told him before he passed, that I appreciated his willingness to run for office, and that I supported him and that I would keep fighting for the priorities we had discussed."

“For those who loved him, we are devastated by his passing, he was a great father, husband, community leader, employer, and most importantly, a real friend who would help you out in a pinch!”

Kurt Garrelts worked for Clint and his company as electrician and plumber, among other things. We ran into him Wednesday afternoon last week where he was inventorying materials and straightening up things at the company headquarters, in the renovated former uptown fire hall on High Street. He said he and his co-workers are heart sick over losing their boss and friend.

“He was the best boss,” Kurt began.

He said in addition to having great trade skills, “he was a great business man,” who studied business administration in college.

“-And as a boss he was outstanding!”

Kurt said that Clint as a businessman and contractor and local employer he was “very open-minded. “When he approached me five years of so ago to come to work for him it was a no-brainer,” given what I knew about Clint and how fair he was with everyone.

“In any group setting, he would always listen to what people had to say. He'd never belittled anyone by not listening to them. He truly was eager to listen to what you had to say!”

“He often told me you learn a lot by listening to the other guy!”

Mr. Garrelts said Clint and his crews always talked thoroughly about the projects before them. “Everyone always felt they had a piece of the project and it was a good way to do things!”

He said “a great team effort” was always present at Hollingsworth Carpentry and Renovation.

“He always stressed that we had to keep our customers happy and he was very good at working with our clients.”

Kurt said too that he was very generous to the people of the community and when tragedy struck, he was often the first one to step up and offer the services of his crew without charge. He cited several recent examples of his generosity.

Kurt said there have been many times over the years when Clint would have as many as 16 people on the payroll.

“He respected everyone who ever worked for him,” and there were many tradesmen on his various crews over the years- some excellent and some not so good. “But he never belittled anyone. He gave everyone a chance...he wanted everyone he hired to succeed!

Clint was good friend of many of the people who worked for him, according to Kurt. He remembers one late autumn day during deer hunting season when he and Doug Snyder were working at a client's house in the woods and fresh snow had fallen.

“I told Doug...look at it out there. What a day. We should be in the woods hunting deer!”

“So Doug got right on the phone and called Clint and asked him if he minded if we took the afternoon off to go hunting.

“Where are you guys? Clint immediately asked him, according to Kurt. “He told us to come back to town and meet at the shop, but just give him time enough to go home to get his gun and his hunting equipment.” The three of them went to camp for an enjoyable afternoon of hunting. “That's the kind of boss we was!” Kurt noted. “He loved to hunt. We all did!”

In Clint's final days receiving care from hospice, his employees were frequent guests at the house, along with Clint and Alison's many other friends and family members, according to Kurt.