In our selfish world, finding a man who gives freely of his time is unusual.

Finding a man who practically shared his whole life with others, opening his heart and his mind to the needs of others is truly rare.

And Fred Falkenheiner was certainly among the most rare and special of men.

The 70-year-old Vidalia native died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer.

Fred’s disease took him out of the public eye recently, but he spent a lifetime devoted to the family, friends and community that he loved so much.

Fred’s community involvement was tremendous and diverse. Most notably, however, he served on the Concordia Parish Police Jury for three decades, 12 years as its president.

With his calm, levelheaded nature, Fred guided the parish through countless issues, financial crises and growing pains.

Tangible evidence of his leadership is all around the parish in the form of buildings and public projects.

But it’s the intangible leadership qualities that made him such a wonderful leader, mentor and father.

As one former co-worker described him, he was “a prince of a gentleman.”

We cannot think of a more fitting way to describe him.

This prince will be greatly missed, but his legacy will carry on for generations of Miss-Lou residents.