When any individual dies, the temptation is always to make him or her larger than they were.  In my life I have known few hard heroes, those willing to put their lives, careers and perhaps their families on the line.  Most of the heroes in our lives fall within the context of our parents or other members of our families.  Sometimes we actually have the privilege of witnessing an exceptionally saintly priest or a teacher or a friend going the full distance of commitment to their fellow human beings.

There is another category of hero just as important.  I call them soft heroes.  They surely were hard heroes to others.  But soft heroes to me are those men and women whom I have known personally in my life but whose work I have known better than I have known them, and who grow over time.  These are individuals who have done much for many millions of people whom they will never know in ways that seem to be commonplace and less dramatic than grandstanding in front of a bank of cameras.  I call them soft heroes because the battles they fight are often seen as being on paper.  Of course, paper has won many battles in the history of humankind.

Harry Pachon, who died Friday in Los Angeles, was one of those soft heroes in my life.  Harry won many battles on behalf of the HispanicLatino community and on behalf of decency itself through his work, and the organizations that he had a hand of forming and supporting through the years will keep on winning many battles for many years to come.

I met Harry scores of years ago and would run across him in the various cities across the country in which I have lived and worked.  He was slightly older than me.  Ordinarily one of two men in generally the same age bracket seldom becomes an automatic acolyte to the other.  But with Harry, I immediately and gladly took the second seat.

In conversation, Harry was both listener and teacher and long before it was fashionable, he indeed saw synergy in so many different experiences in the HispanicLatino community.  And he helped others foresee the possibilities for their lives and worked to make them real, tangible — and hard.

The temptation to oversize Harry upon the news of his death is an easy one to give into – but in this case it is wholly merited.  For me, Harry was exceptional.  For the rest of the HispanicLatino community and for the country itself, Harry is monumental.

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