In tribute: Longtime resident Duane Jacklin kept an eye on community

While he never held a city office, Duane Jacklin could be counted on to keep up with community events and speak up for his view of community betterment.

Jacklin, who died March 17 at age 91, was active in Clovis community affairs, appearing at Clovis city commission meetings, conferring with city official and a frequent contributor of letters to the editor for The News.

Ray Mondragon, a former Clovis police chief and city manager, remembers being invited to Jacklin's home for pastry, coffee and lots of conversation about local issues and ande events.

Jacklin proved to be "interesting and a colorful individual," Mondragon said.

"If he had an opinion he'd let you know about it," he said. "He used to give me hell about things in the city."

Jacklin was interested in action, however, not in political affiliation, Mondragon said.

"He reached across the aisle," he said, and didn't care about politics "as long as things got done."

Mondragon said he was surprised when Jacklin's granddaughter asked him to be a pallbearer at Jacklin's funeral.

Mondragon served as a pallbearer, as did former Clovis Mayor David Lansford.

Lansford remembered Jacklin mostly as being attentive.

"He was very attentive about who community leaders were and what funcitions they served," Lansford said.

Jacklin, he said was "a very straightforward guy. He brought out the best in people, but if they got off the rails, he'd call it out."

Lansford said Jacklin had the courage to "speak his mind in the public interest," and was willing "to deal with the ramifications."

Further, Lansford said, unless more people are willing to speak out as Jacklin did, "we may lose that opportunity."

Lansford added, however, that Jacklin was always respectful and

In his letters to the editor found in The News archives, Jacklin advocated for better pay for city employees, but especially to police officers.

In one letter, apparently written as the city was contemplating whether to build the Clovis Civic Center, Jacklin opposed the center, saying the money should instead go to raises for city employees.

"We don't need to raise property taxes or put a mill levy on the ballot," Jacklin wrote, "just use these funds designated for the civic center. After all the citizens of this community have voted against a civic center. Certain small groups of persons are trying to push one on us."

In another letter, Jacklin said police in particular were underpaid at the expense of funding a civic center.

"The county's events center is good enough for this community. We don't need two," he wrote. "We have to ask ourselves what's more important - our safety or a building that will be hardly used?"

Despite Jacklin's objections, the Clovis Civic Center became a reality.

In another letter, Jacklin wondered why a community as small as Clovis had drug problems.

"My oldest son recently retired as a federal agent," Jacklin wrote, "and he said he cannot understand why this drug mess here has not been cleaned up. For the small size of our community and the small population, it should have been cleaned up a long time ago."

Before settling in Clovis Jacklin became a prisoner of war while serving in the U.S. Navy during the Korean conflict.

After the war, Jacklin served with the U.S. Air Force reserve while serving as a federal investigator working all over the world, according to his obituary.

He lived in India for six years, but his second home was in Hawai'I while he was an investigator, according to the obituary.

After moving to Clovis, Jacklin trained police officers in New Mexico and Texas. Some of his trainees went on to retire as chiefs of police, his obituary said.