YOUNGSVILLE — Gregg Semenetz first met Rodney Gaebel in 1972 - when Gaebel was 23 and Semenetz just 18.

“We played ball together probably for 15 years,” the Jeffersonville resident recalled. “He was a tough competitor!”

And not just squaring off in basketball or softball games. Gaebel, a native of neighboring Youngs-ville, never backed down from any worthy battle.

Just ask Alexis Eggleton, who as the County Legislature's aide had a front-row seat to then-Legislator Gaebel's bellowing matches with fellow Legislator Chris Cunningham inside the halls of the Sullivan County Government Center.

“Political opposites [Gaebel was the Republican majority leader, Cunningham the Democratic chairman of the Legislature], these two men would shout down the building disagreeing on a policy,” she related.

“But after almost every divisive vote, they would likely be found having a beer together at 5 p.m.”

In fact, Cunningham had been invited by Gaebel just this month to come up to his hunting camp and enjoy a beer over good conversation.

That rendezvous will never be, however, as Gaebel died on Thursday from complications following a massive stroke the week before.

“He was a good guy, and I really liked him,” mused Cunningham the day after Gaebel's death at age 66. “We fought, but I think we respected each other. It had nothing to do with the politics.”

Eggleton, now working in the Bronx, never forgot their relationship.

“They disagreed (sometimes vehemently) on policy, but still managed to deeply respect each other's commitment and devotion to public service, always maintaining open lines of communication and never making their arguments personal,” she said. “The importance of that lesson has stayed with me ever since.”

Cunningham gave a simple reason for their bond.

“I could rely on his word on anything,” he explained. “Believe me, when you have that kind of trust, that means a lot.”

Indeed, that was one of Gaebel's most admired traits.

“When he looked you in the eye and told you something, it meant something,” District Attorney Jim Farrell recalled. “... He was an honorable man.”

And though he was an influential member of the Town of Callicoon and Sullivan County GOP committees - serving until his death as the county's Republican elections commissioner - Gaebel wasn't an extreme partisan.

“Rodney Gaebel was considered the elder statesman of Sullivan County,” affirmed Undersheriff Eric Chaboty. “You could always ask him for advice, no matter what party you were from.”

He built trust with the people he worked and mentored, the kind of trust often lacking in the Government Center these days.

“He didn't have an agenda. ... He looked out for everybody. And he always gave you a truthful and fair answer,” recalled Semenetz, who ran for a Town of Callicoon Board seat the same year (1991) Gaebel ran for town supervisor.

“We said, ‘If you run, I'll run.' I trusted him, and he trusted me,” said Semenetz, who ultimately succeeded Gaebel as supervisor in 1996.

That was the year Gaebel became one of the nine inaugural members of the newly-formed Sullivan County Legislature, replacing the Board of Supervisors on which he'd previously served as Callicoon's leader.

He stayed there until 2007, when he reluctantly decided to become the Republican elections commissioner - a decision Semenetz said was difficult for Gaebel, who had to weigh serving his constituents in District 5 versus providing for his family.

“He turned out to be a great asset to the county even not being a legislator,” Semenetz marvelled.

The pain of his loss is particularly acute inside the Board of Elections.

“Rodney was a very kind-hearted and funny person. He was a dear friend and boss,” related his deputy commissioner, Pam Murran. “I am going to miss him every day.”

“We will miss that booming voice, those broad shoulders, the genuine kindness shown to each and every one of us and most of all the sense of humor that sustained us during good times and bad,” Democratic Elections Commissioner Ann Prusinski said, thanking everyone for the many notes and calls of condolence.

“Words cannot express the deep sense of loss we share with his many friends and the family he cherished,” she added. “We are grateful for the time we did share with a man who embodied integrity and decency and who appreciated life's simplest pleasures, albeit all too briefly for we five and the county he so honorably served.”

“Rodney was a good person,” County Republican Committee Chairman Dick Coombe explained. “He'll be sorely missed by his family, his friends and the county.”

Certainly most of all by his family, whom he loved as much as they him.

The lives he touched went far beyond his family.

“He was a true gentleman who'd give the proverbial shirt off his back to anyone in need,” said County Clerk Dan Briggs.

And he was a straight-shooter.

“He spoke from common sense,” Briggs added. “He always tried to do what is best for Sullivan County.”

“I've lost a dear friend and a mentor,” related Sheriff Michael Schiff, “and I think Sullivan County has lost someone who kept everyone grounded in a political arena that could sometimes be volatile. He will be missed.”

County Treasurer Nancy Buck could see that in the faces of the hundreds who came to Jeffersonville Sunday to pay their respects to Gaebel's family.

“That was a big tribute,” she affirmed of a man she gratefully called her friend. “Rodney and I always connected because we were both from the western end of Sullivan County. ... We could talk about anything. He was down-to-earth. And he understood the whole picture.”

Including friendship.

“He was a very, very good friend,” remarked a somber Tom Bose, a Youngsville farmer and current Town of Callicoon supervisor who knew Gaebel from childhood.

“To me, he was more like an older brother, always there,” added Bose. “He was the epitome of common sense - somebody who could spell it out to you very clearly.”

And he was “just a great, great human being.

“Truly,” noted Bose, “nobody made me laugh harder and longer than Rodney Gaebel.”