Craig Daily Press

Last month, state Sen. Jack Taylor completed his final session of the state Legislature, bringing an end to a 16-year-run at the Capitol in Denver.

Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, represented Senate District 8 — encompassing Moffat, Routt, Jackson and Rio Blanco counties, and parts of Eagle and Garfield counties — from 2001 to 2008. Before that, he served in the state House of Representatives from 1993 to 2000.

Taylor, 72, is term limited.

Despite whatever perception of Taylor individual voters may have, whether they agreed with his platform, his policies or the bills he sponsored, his long period of uninterrupted public service deserves thanks and praise, the Editorial Board contends.

In today’s age, when volunteerism and sense of civic duty is waning not only here in our own community but also across the nation, Taylor is a throwback to a less cynical era when public service and involvement was more common.

That doesn’t necessarily exist today. Life gets busy, public service — or at least the kind it takes to do some good — requires dedication and sacrifice, time away from family and the willingness to be subjected to public criticism.

Translation: It’s not always an appealing job, and the people willing to take part are becoming increasingly rare.

To his credit, Taylor made himself a presence in the communities he represented and was a staunch advocate for the Western Slope.

Don’t confuse the board’s position. The board doesn’t wholly support all of Taylor’s views, but members choose to recognize the senator’s good intentions behind the past decade and a half.

Those intentions are summed up below:

“You represent the district first, then the region, then the state. … And you don’t get hung up on single issues. The only two things you have to offer are honest and integrity,” Taylor recently told the Steamboat Pilot & Today.

Honesty and integrity also were the primary topics of the outgoing senator’s last address at the Senate microphone, fitting words for a man who spent a good deal of his professional life putting the public first.