GRANITE FALLS — A lot of kind words, all of them deserving are being offered as we eulogize Gary Kubly.
I’d like to add one because it will always define him for me.
Compassion.
I believe it motivated much of what he did.
I also believe some of his compassion came from the fact that he saw what many never see. He responded to what he saw exactly as a Lutheran minister should. He helped those less fortunate.
Kubly saw the poverty that exists in our rural areas.
Through his role as a rural life coordinator during the farm crisis, Kubly made many visits to farm families. He spoke of many different cases where he found bare cupboards and empty refrigerators and young children at home.
The families he helped were victims of circumstances or well-intended mistakes of their own, like trying to expand the farm at the worst of times.
He mentioned too that the poverty he saw on some farms in the 1980’s has not disappeared. He had continued to see it in rural communities through his work as a rural minister.
I have had the opportunity to see him at work as a legislator. All kinds of issues were directed his way, both large and small. Through it all he always maintained the perspective that comes from seeing and understanding the hardships of those less fortunate. For Kubly, compassion always meant a responsibility to those less fortunate.

— Tom Cherveny