UNITY – Colleagues and friends from town government and business agreed that the death of First Selectman Richard “Dick” Whitney would leave a void in the community.

Whitney, who was left paralyzed after a May car accident, died Sunday at his home at the age of 71.

“He’s going to be very, very sorely missed,” said Ralph Nason, owner of Unity Raceway. “He’s one of the most honest, if not the most honest person I’ve ever met.”

Whitney and his wife worked at the racetrack in various capacities since Nason bought it in 1980. Until his accident, Whitney served as pit steward at the track, handling timing of races and other chores. At one point, Whitney announced the races.

“He did the best he could for everyone,” Nason said of Whitney, a theme that was repeated in the comments of others. “He was a peach of a guy.”

Whitney enjoyed people, Nason said.

“He had fun with people,” he said. “He just liked to kid around. He thoroughly enjoyed life, and he saw it as his mission to see that you enjoyed life, too.”

In 1967, Whitney started one of the area’s first snowmobile sales businesses, Dick’s Moto Ski, with Richard “Dick” Chase. Chase’s son Ron now runs the business under a different name.

“He was a phenomenal guy,” the younger Chase said. He remembered Whitney had a particular way of looking at someone, as if to size them up, before beginning to joke and tease.

“He lived by a certain set of standards,” Chase said.

Charles “Jim” Murch, a selectman for 20 years, served with Whitney for the last 13 years. Even after Whitney was confined to a hospital bed, Murch would confer with him about town business.

Asked to sum up Whitney’s approach to running town government, Murch narrowed it to just one word – “economy.”

“We would do the best we could with what we had,” Murch said, even if it meant the two of them going out and installing street signs, rather than paying someone to do it.

“We didn’t always agree, but there was no argument,” he said. “It’s going to take a big man to fill his shoes.”

Murch first got to know Whitney when Whitney worked for the state as a potato inspector, and remembered the fair way in which he did his job.

Town Clerk Sue Lombard said Whitney held the town’s purse strings tightly.

“He was a penny-pincher,” she said with a laugh, “and he’d tell you that was the way he felt about it. His main concern was doing right by the town.”

Whitney’s love for the town ran deep, Lombard said.

“He had so much stuff up in his head,” she said, from reading town records or from his 13 years’ experience on the board.

Dan Toto, who served on the town’s cemetery committee, asked regularly about Whitney’s condition after the accident, Lombard said.

“I don’t know anybody who would say a bad word about Dick Whitney,” Toto said.

In addition to his public life, Whitney was deeply committed to his wife, children and grandchildren, Toto said.

A memorial service for Whitney will be held 1 p.m. Friday, Aug. 30, at the Unity Centre for the Performing Arts, with prayers followed by interment at Pond Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made in Whitney’s memory to the B.U.M league, care of Scott Rogers, P.O. Box 323, Unity 04988.