You Can Go Home Again (or Make a New One)

• Year: 2024
• Citation: Vol. 93 No. 5 Pg. 48
• Pages: 48
• Date: 01 October 2024

You Can Go Home Again (or Make a New One) No. 93 J. Kan. Bar Assn 5, 48 (2024) Kansas Bar Journal October, 2024

rural law practice

You Can Go Home Again (or Make a New One)

By Dana Brewer, Of Counsel to CAD Law, LC

It was a glorious spring day in 1976 when I descended into the scenic Republican River Valley, traveling from Topeka, where my days at the Washburn University School of Law were quickly passing. The city of Concordia revealed herself in a way unlike the many times before. It was the "golden hour" prized by artists, just before sunset when the light is infused with gold and red tones, making it softer and objects more diffused.

The town beckoned me to take a closer look at what it offered: the newly built campus of Cloud County Community College; the inviting city park, where pick-up basketball was played during my high school days and an attractive Olympic size swimming pool had replaced the one built during WPA days; a thriving ag industry centered around Cloud County Co-Op Elevator, of which my grandfather, George Ames, had served on the board of directors; and Cloud Ceramics, which produced fine face brick of many colors and sizes from nearby clay deposits and shipped as far away as New York.

The crown jewel was the Brown Grand Theatre, a 600-plus seat venue that was the major stopover between the showplaces of Kansas City and Denver for opera singers, vaudeville acts, orchestras, plays, and more in its early years after opening in 1907. It was being restored to its former glory — including 50 gallons of gold leaf paint to refurbish the interior stenciling — as a bicentennial project. Concordia and the surrounding area had strong schools and reasonable levels of goods and services. It seemed to me that if the Concordia economy could be kept viable, there would be a greater probability of keeping the less-populated communities in the area viable as well.

Having grown to adulthood on a farm outside the nearby village of Norway, where I attended grade school and church, and near the small cities of Courtland and Scandia, where I graduated from high school, it was my passion to help those communities and the people in the surrounding area who depended on them. A rising tide raises all boats, but in my experience, it takes a critical mass of devoted citizens to accomplish the essential areas of economic development.

I graduated from Washburn University School of Law with the Class of '77. To finance my degrees and supplement my scholarships there and at Kansas State University, I worked on farms, road construction, and labored on a truck dock in Kansas City. Much appreciated part-time positions in the Revisor of Statutes' and Judicial Administrator's Offices had helped pay my way through law school. I researched practicing law with large and medium firms in Kansas City and Hutchinson. However, during law school, I felt the call of home. While discussing it, my father, Dean Brewer, told me, "Come home, there will always be room for you here." So, though some aspects of urban life...