Jim Flory will step off Douglas County Commission when he gavels his last meeting Wednesday as chairman of the body. Flory chose not to run for a third term for his 3rd District Commission seat, ending a half century of public service.

Jim Flory paused a second Tuesday before recounting a list of accomplishments from his eight years on the Douglas County Commission.

“There’s actually quite a few,” he said.

Flory was in a reflective mood as he prepares to step away from 48 years of public life. Flory will give up his Douglas County Commission 3rd District seat with the Jan. 9 swearing in of his successor, fellow Republican Michelle Derusseau.

His list of accomplishments includes the construction of a new Douglas County Public Works Headquarters, which opened in 2015, the $8 million renovations at the Douglas County Fairgrounds, the partnerships with the city of Lawrence and state that led to the 2010 opening of the Bioscience and Technology Business Center and the 2015 partnering with the city in the opening of the Dwayne Peaslee Technical Training Center.

The last two are clearly economic development projects, but Flory maintains the same is true of the fairgrounds improvements. New buildings like the (Jim) Flory Meeting Hall, Open Air Pavilion and Outdoor Arena will attract events that will draw visitors to Lawrence, he predicts.

Having his name placed on the meeting hall earlier this month was the most gratifying honor he received in his career, but one he insists on sharing with fellow County Commissioners Mike Gaughan and Nancy Thellman, County Administrator Craig Weinaug, Assistant County Administrator Sarah Plinsky and others.

“In my 48 years, I’ve got a number of plaques and honors,” he said. “That’s the top of the list as far as I’m concerned. I’m very pleased with the project. It was a team effort. Mike and Nancy were there the whole way. Craig and Sarah did the financial planning so that we could do the project without issuing any debt. There were a lot of people who did a lot of work.”

Flory’s public service career started when as a 17-year-old recent high school graduate, he accepted a late spring 1966 offer of former Douglas County Sheriff Rex Johnson to be the sheriff’s office radio dispatcher and county jail attendant from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m. six nights a week for $300 a month. He was a one-man show who had to find a deputy to mind the radio if he had to address something in the jail. In a pinch, he could call the sheriff down from his top-floor residence in the old county jail to the east of the Douglas County Courthouse, he said.

“I was the entire jail division and communications division,” he said. “I know I966 was a long time ago, but it’s not that long ago. It makes you reflect on how much things have changed.”

It was a life-changing decision as Flory put aside plans to attend Emporia State to get a secondary education degree. Instead, he enrolled at the University of Kansas, keeping the jail job for two years until he joined the U.S. Air Force for four years, including a yearlong tour in Vietnam.

He returned to Lawrence ready to resume his education and his association with the sheriff’s office as a deputy patrol officer. He would continue to work full time for the sheriff’s office while he finished his undergraduate studies and went to KU Law School. He collected his law degree in December 1978, just as newly elected Kansas Attorney General Robert Stephan was putting together his team.

“There was an opening for assistant attorney general,” Flory said. “I applied even though I didn’t have any experience or even taken the bar exam.”

Flory got the job, nonetheless, because Stephan was impressed with the background he would bring to the position of assistant attorney general in the criminal division.

He stayed in that position until he ran successfully in 1984 for district attorney of Douglas County, winning re-election four years later. He remembers once trying three murder cases in one “tough” year. The names involved slip his mind except for John William, who was convicted of the gruesome murder of a 9-year-old North Lawrence boy.

“They went for the insanity defense,” Flory said. “It didn’t fly.”

Halfway through Flory’s second four-year term in 1991, he accepted a federal job with the U.S. Attorney for Kansas. He remained with the office until his retirement in 2006, even serving as U.S. Attorney for Kansas for a year in 2000-2001.

Flory got back into local politics when Jere McElhaney decided in 2008 not to seek re-election to his 3rd District seat. He won what he said were tough primary and general election contests. He joined the commission in January 2009 with newly elected Nancy Thellman in the dark early days of the Great Recession. They, and Commissioner Mike Gaughan, who was appointed to an unexpired seat in April 2009, were confronted with declining revenues from the state and federal governments as well as its own tax base.

“The tough economic conditions started when Nancy and I took office,” he said. “We really were the safety net for a lot of agencies. I think if you asked the directors of the agencies who serve the most vulnerable in the community, they would agree with that. We stepped up or efforts as a team.”

Thellman said Flory’s legal background was a big asset on the Commission. He often was asked to take the lead and put in extra work on thorny issues, such as tow-truck regulations, because of his legal expertise.

Flory also had intangible qualities that made him a natural for Commission chair, Thellman said.

“He has a sense of confidence,” she said. “He knows how to command a room. His leadership will be missed.”

As he looks back on his eight years, Flory takes pride in the bipartisan working relationship he and the two Democrats on the County Commission were able to forge.

“The way things are this day and age with everything divided on state and federal levels and people unable to work with each other, this commission accomplished a lot,” he said. “As the majority, the other two commissioners could have shut me out. They gave me an equal voice. They even asked me to be Commission chairman two of three years.

“We had our differences over the years. Nancy and I were at odds over the Heritage Conservation program, not on the goals but how it was funded. I was really strong on the fairgrounds, probably more so than the other two. We were able to find consensus on the way to go forward.”

She and Flory also disagreed on a number of land-use issue, but those differences never became personal, Thellman said.

“Even when we didn’t agree, Jim was always a gentleman and gracious,” she said. “I always appreciated his wisdom. We never held votes against each other. We kept it professional and positive.”

Flory looks forward in retirement to traveling with his wife, Donna, and visiting his two daughters and their families in Ann Arbor, Mich., and New York City.

He would willingly serve in any advisory capacity Commissioners ask of him, Flory said, particularly in regard to the Douglas County Jail renovations and a mental health crisis intervention center. He doesn’t have any regrets in not seeking a third term on the Commission and vows he will never again campaign for political office.

“I remember a retiring FBI agent saying, ‘I won’t miss the circus, but I’ll miss the clowns,'” he said. “It’s the people I’ll miss.”