Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 24, 1993 TAG: 9307240199
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
Listen.
It was advice that Tucker carried with him even after he became a lawyer and federal prosecutor.
Some people complain about working with the public, Tucker said. "I love it."
Tucker's love affair with public service officially ended Friday as he stepped down as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Virginia. President Clinton has appointed Martinsville attorney Robert Crouch Jr. to replace Tucker.
"Monty is a very positive, upbeat kind of human being," said Karen Peters, his chief prosecutor. "He's done this transition with good humor. He's done everything he can to lay out the welcome mat."
Making people feel welcome has become a trademark of Tucker, 54, the fleshy-cheeked son of a Southside Virginia tobacco farmer.
Many of his staff were teary-eyed Friday as they recalled his 20 years of federal service, which was filled with the patience of a teacher, the sensitivity of a father and the good humor of a genuinely kind man.
After working as an assistant U.S. attorney, Tucker was named to the top job in July 1990 by President Bush.
"He loves his job," said Sandy Larese, who's been his secretary for two years. "He makes you love your job. He's a great motivator."
Tucker said his motivation came from a lifestyle rooted in the hard lessons of farm work and his recovery from a potentially disabling childhood disease.
At 5, rheumatic fever left him bedridden for nearly two years, forcing his family out of the hubbub of Richmond onto a farm in Amelia County. As his family worked, Tucker struggled to regain his health. As soon as he could sit up, he started reading.
Those were hard years for the Tucker family. Tobacco is a fragile crop that needs constant tending. But Earl and Lillian Tucker were determined to get their children off the farm and impressed upon them the need for education. Tucker was the only family member to graduate from college.
After he recovered from his illness, Tucker was determined to take advantage of all that life had to offer.
"I love to be outside on a beautiful day," he said. "I like to get on with what I have to do."
Working on the farm with his parents, he soon learned why they didn't like the tedium of hard manual labor.
Still, a visit to his mother's relatives' house for a summer taught him that there could be fun in work. Like his parents, his mother's relatives worked in tobacco. Unlike them, the relatives stayed up late into the night, talking and laughing.
"Laughter could be heard throughout the house," Tucker said. "I saw then that people could work hard, but play hard."
After his family moved from the farm to Newport News, it was those ingredients that propelled Tucker through law school and into the U.S. Attorney's Office. He worked as a salesman at IBM to pay for his law degree after his father died - six months before he graduated from Washington and Lee University.
Tucker cut his teeth in the legal profession at the Richmond law firm of Hunton & Williams until he got the bug to prosecute criminal cases.
Actually, he was spurred by a family tragedy. After his father died, his mother married a man who was shot in the head and killed during a robbery.
Soon, Tucker started hearing from lawyer buddies in Roanoke that there might be an opening for a federal prosecutor. The brash, former salesman called U.S. Attorney Leigh Hanes.
Hanes asked Tucker for his political credentials.
"I voted for Goldwater," Tucker said. "Is that good enough?" Not quite.
Hanes required Tucker to get written endorsement from Republican officeholders he'd never met. He did.
That wasn't his only political problem. He had to convince his wife, Judie, who liked Richmond, that Roanoke would be only a temporary assignment. It wasn't. Their daughter, Courtney, is following in his footsteps at Washington and Lee.
He inherited the job of U.S. attorney from John Perry Alderman, who recommended him.
During his tenure as the boss, Tucker has worked hard to make sure his office acted as a team with the U.S. Justice Department and other federal agencies. At the same time, he learned that humor can remove unnecessary barriers between a manager and his workers.
He once wrote a humorous poem to attorneys in the office when he had to clean out a foul-smelling refrigerator. And there was the time he dressed as a woman for a skit at a Christmas party.
"I'm just glad I didn't have to undergo a background investigation after that," Tucker said.
In his 20 years in the U.S. Attorney's Office, he gained a reputation as a shrewd civil lawyer who developed into a first-rate manager.
Now, he has no real plans. He said he'll sit back awhile and think about what his next job might be. He's not ruling out a run for political office.
Through the years, Tucker has prosecuted criminals, sued on the government's behalf, consoled employees and lent his ear to co-workers or citizens in need of a friend in government.
"Until I leave this job, I want to keep my focus on it," he said on his last day. "Public servants get rewards that money can't touch."
by CNB