Local democracy lost a leader last week. Harrison Gregg, who held the gavel at Amherst Town Meeting for 19 years, passed away on April 2 (“Longtime moderator Gregg dies at 76,” April 6).

I met Mr. Gregg when I was a graduate student at the University of Massachusetts, writing my dissertation on town meeting deliberation. I interviewed him and attended Amherst’s 1999 and 2000 meetings, poring over his words, studying the complicated dance of interactions he facilitated.

At times, in Amherst’s multinight meeting, deliberations took a toll on participants. On May 19, 1999, Mr. Gregg pondered the previous evening’s meeting session. He apologized for his mixing of words during votes (slipping to say that the “ayes” have it when he meant to say “nos”).

He joked, “I can’t say ‘no,’” and continued, “I had just seen Commonwealth Opera’s production of ‘Oklahoma’ and I started thinking about a few other songs from that play that seem very appropriate to this Town Meeting. One of them is called ‘The Farmers and the Ranchers should be friends’ (this drew lots of laughter from the audience). And another one which seems particularly appropriate to this Town Meeting is ‘Many a New Day.’”

The man knew his show tunes.

After a laughter-filled pause, the following exchange occurred between Bryan Harvey, Select Board chairman, and Moderator Gregg.

Harvey: “Mister moderator?”

Gregg: “Yes?”

Harvey: “You missed one.”

Gregg: “What?”

Harvey: “‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over’” (drew sustained laughter).

Gregg: “Well, that’s from ‘Carousel.’”

Harvey: “We’ll get there.”

Gregg: “And when we are finished it’ll be ‘Oh, What a Beautiful Morning’ (five-second pause). But, seriously there is one other song from this play that I would like to mention that is very appropriate to all town meetings — ‘All or Nuttin’ (laughter). With me it’s all or nuttin, is it all or nuttin with you?

“And it’s all or nuttin with Town Meeting. We have to stay with it and finish every article on the warrant or we haven’t done nuttin because nothing takes effect until the meeting dissolves. The meeting cannot dissolve until we have dealt with every article, either having voted on it up or down, dismissed it or referred it. So we do have to stay with it.

“At this point, we have disposed of 22 articles in the eight evenings that we’ve been here. Two from the special Town Meeting and 20 from the annual Town Meeting. We have 32 articles ahead of us (six-second pause, while rubbing his forehead).

“This has been a long and sometimes difficult meeting. We’ve all had moments of boredom and frustration and exasperation. And some people have been heard to ask, ‘What am I doing here?’ I’d like to say what I think we’re doing here. I think we’re conducting the business of the town.

“I think we’re continuing Amherst’s 240-year tradition of open discussion and collective decision-making and I think we’re upholding the ancient right of the people to petition their government and to know that their petitions will be heard. This is an obligation that we have all undertaken and it is our privilege.

“I very much appreciate after all these nights people turning out in a timely way. … We have all these things that we have to do but we have to start keeping an eye on the clock and an eye on the calendar and maybe exercise a little more self-restraint as we go through our debate.

“And there will be time to rest, we have six nights … off after tonight, and after next Wednesday we have 11 nights off. Then we come back on June 7th, June 9 and, God help us, on the following Monday, Wednesday and Thursday! I think we can finish in about four more nights if we really stay at it.”

Mr. Gregg stayed at it.

Historian Howard Mansfield compared town meeting as an institution to a “political habit of being.” He observed that “the Japanese at Ise preserve the great temple by rebuilding it, since A.D. 685, over and over again, every twenty years. They don’t attempt to arrest time and hold the building against decay. They preserve the process of temple building, not just the tools in glass cases, but the hands and the hearts to use them. Nothing democratic can ever be that pure. But in town meeting each year we labor to rebuild the temple. Democracy is a process. We make it anew each day. Historically speaking, it is an experiment, and we should regard it that way.”

As a moderator, as a member and former president of the Massachusetts Moderators Association, Mr. Gregg helped people develop the political habit of being citizens in a democracy. He was a mentor to many.

Town meetings throughout our commonwealth are not arrested in time. They adapt to suit the needs of the people who need democracy and who are committed to self-government through deliberation and decision-making. They thus preserve the process.

At times of great consternation and upheaval, we see cracks in our processes. Singer Leonard Cohen observed that there are cracks in everything, but that’s how the light gets in. We are at such a point now.

Mr. Gregg was a man who allowed participants to see more clearly what they were doing. His light shall be missed.

Rebecca M. Townsend, Ph.D., of Longmeadow, is an assistant professor of communication at the University of Hartford. She is the town moderator in Longmeadow.