Ogilvie's actions filled with kindness, compassion

It’s only been three years since I moved to Sandpoint to begin work as a local reporter, so there hasn’t been a time I haven’t worked with Marsha Ogilvie as a public official in some form or another.

Over those years, I got a pretty good sense of what kind of leader she was. Quick to empathize with her constituents, she always seemed to imagine herself in another person’s shoes before making her decisions. Even though she brought a lot of her personality into her leadership style, it’s a tricky thing to grasp the full measure of a person through a professional relationship.

It was one warm August evening, less than a year since I moved into town, that I glimpsed what Marsha was like to her friends, her family and even to the random people she chanced upon in a given day. After taking some photos at the Festival at Sandpoint, I was having a quiet drink alone while waiting for the fireworks show to begin.

I must have been looking a little lonely and sullen, because Marsha approached me and asked me how I was doing. She mentioned how difficult it must be for a young person to integrate into a small community without any family ties and offered me some words of encouragement.

It was a small moment, and no doubt barely a blip in the daily radar for her. But to me, it meant a lot. Two years later, that’s the memory most present in my mind even as I reflect on the multitude of news events to which she was integral.

• Cameron Rasmusson is a writer for the Bonner County Daily Bee