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When we sat down at 2 p.m. Wednesday in The Sun’s conference room for our weekly department heads meeting, Rick Bales, circulation director, was not in his usual seat. That’s on the corner of the conference table, between the publisher and editor — just where a circulation director should be. In the past other directors have sometimes tried to get as far away as possible from one or both of us, such as when a route had gone down overnight or a heavy rainfall left plenty of readers mad because of wet papers.

A good circulation director is not only an employee of the newspaper but also serves as something of a readers’ representative, and Rick was as good as we’ve seen.

It was unusual for Rick not to be there for a meeting. He always was. Someone mentioned that he’d had a tough morning, but he ordinarily seemed to make tough mornings easier.

We went on with our meeting, not knowing that Rick had probably already died in a tragic accident while working on a Sun truck. But Lorri Householder, assistant circulation director, was worried when he didn’t make it back for the meeting and she couldn’t reach him by telephone. You could always reach Rick, and people did at any hour of the day or night.

That’s the nature of the job of circulation director for a daily newspaper. His department does a major portion of its work between midnight and 6 a.m., seven days a week, every day of the year. No matter how well the rest of us on the staff do our jobs, if the Circulation Department doesn’t function well, our readers are going to be upset.

Rick was one of those “hands-on” guys who wanted to be there any time something was going on. So it wasn’t unusual for him to fill in on a route in the early-morning hours, open his office at 8 a.m., check racks and other sales points around our 10-county area in the afternoon and then represent The Sun for some after-hours event.

He was a guy you could call on to get things done, and he almost always found a way to do it well.

He came to The Sun in December 2007, and he quickly became a loyal and invaluable member of our management team. He also settled easily into life in Northeast Arkansas.

Publisher David Mosesso points out that Rick was the first to raise his hand when we needed a volunteer to handle a special project, lead a tour or represent The Sun at a community function. Once he even agreed to be a dance participant for the “Wanna Dance?” fund-raiser, stepping out of his comfort zone but, as always, performing well. Typically, he took the cause to heart.

Recently he rekindled his love of golf and played on the newspaper’s team in the Triple Swing competition. Asked how well the team did, he said OK, “but at least we beat those radio and TV guys.”

He worked tirelessly to improve the newspaper, starting with his own department. He restored customer service to what someone called 1950s levels, meaning with a high regard for personal service and customer satisfaction. He reduced customer complaints remarkably. He began rebuilding subscriber numbers.

But his contributions didn’t stop there — and shouldn’t — because the circulation director is also responsible for promotion of the newspaper, and that crosses over into every department. He would frequently lobby the editors to do a better job of displaying important and interesting news on the top half of page 1 so it could be seen on the racks. He started a monthly “contest” to reward journalists for good work — a unique idea coming from the Circulation Department.

He didn’t hesitate to push the Advertising Department to get involved in a promotion, and he wasn’t shy about cajoling the publisher for a little more money for a valued employee, a carrier prize or a special project. And he did everything respectfully and amiably so it wasn’t surprising that he made many friends in his time here.

Rick Bales was a creative manager, a team player who not only knew how to lead by example but did so. We know his family will miss him dearly, and so will his friends at The Sun.

—Roy Ockert Jr.