Steny Hoyer

News that Steny Hoyer is, as the third-longest serving member of the House, retiring, has brought forth deserved and accurate encomiums of praise (“Tributes pour in as Rep. Steny Hoyer says he won’t seek reelection,” Jan. 8). Beyond all those superlatives, the person I covered as a journalist and then worked with on funding for a civic project deserves an even higher praise. In one of the most deal-ridden and far too often contrived places on the globe, Steny was straightforward, smart, wise, direct, honest on the real odds about anything and everything, and blessed with a sense of humor that, if saintly in purpose, was devilishly clever in delivery. Steny Hoyer was the real deal. Marylanders and Americans can know we are better people for his having served us.

— Stan Heuisler, Baltimore