The fight against addiction lost one of its most stalwart members recently with the passing of Rick Huber.

For years Huber was director of the Mental Health Association. But serving as director of the MHA didn’t mean Huber sat in his office while others did the work. Huber was on the front lines, answering phone calls in the middle of the night when someone needed help. Huber worked the phones to help those who needed professional help find their way to treatment facilities. Were it not for Huber, the greater Chautauqua County community may not have realized quite how bad the county’s addiction issues really were and, honestly, still are. Huber’s efforts helped bring the issue of addiction in front of county officials in a way that could not be ignored. The result is a thriving Mental Health Association with two sites – one in Jamestown and one in Dunkirk – that offers countless classes, support groups and other avenues of support for those who are trying to overcome addiction. There are countless supports now that didn’t exist 20 years ago in large part thanks to Huber’s advocacy.

Huber made quite an impact.

Huber could be brash. He could be outspoken. He could rub people the wrong way. But history proved Huber’s instincts were often spot on when it came to the needs of those in recovery. Huber retired in 2016 from the Mental Health Association. The organization is thriving. There are countless services available now that were hard to imagine when Huber began his work at the MHA. But at times it feels as if we’re resting on our laurels because we’ve made strides in the fight against addiction. The fight to improve addiction services hasn’t been as public over the past nine years. The effort to bring more treatment services has been quieter since Huber left the public sphere. We aren’t quite as open about the fact that Chautauqua County has an addiction and mental health problem without Huber leading the conversation.

Rick Huber was one of a kind. And that’s too bad, because Huber did as much to advance addiction services in the county as anyone. We could use someone like Huber to push for the next round of improvements to the system.