Stout touched many lives
If “It’s a Wonderful Life” is among your Christmastime staples, you will almost certainly remember the moment when the guardian angel Clarence tells the despondent George Bailey that “each man’s life touches so many other lives.”
That sentiment comes to mind when considering the life of J. Barry Stout, the Washington County lawmaker who died Saturday just days shy of his 80th birthday. If you travel on a highway in the region, cross a bridge or, more specifically, are among the thousands of people employed at Southpointe, Stout touched your life.
Throughout his almost four decades as a legislator – six as a state representative and 33 as a state senator – Stout had a keen interest in transportation projects and how they can fuel economic development. Stout was a prime mover in Harrisburg when it came to the Mon-Fayette Expressway and the Southern Beltway. A park and ride lot in South Strabane Township that opened in 2004 near the intersection of Route 19, Interstate 70 and Interstate 79 bears his name, and it’s an appropriate tribute – Stout himself recognized how the property could be used when he discovered PennDOT owned it.
Stout did his job with vigor and enthusiasm. We can only hope the candidates who await the verdict of voters on Tuesday follow his example.