Rapid City mayor's father lived the golden rule

'It all comes down to how you treat people, how you relate to people, and how you get the most out of people'

By Kevin Woster, Journal staff | Monday, June 16, 2008

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There are times when Alan Hanks just has to keep his mouth shut.

To do otherwise would violate a principle he learned from his dad, Ethan.

"He'd say, 'Don't speak ill of other people. Treat people as you would like them to treat you. And if you don't have anything nice to say, keep your mouth shut,'" Hanks said. "I can't remember my father speaking badly of anyone. And I can't think of anyone speaking poorly of my dad."

There was plenty good to say about Ethan Hanks, a Miller native and all-sports star in high school who went on to make the Northern State University hall of fame. Ethan Hanks came to Rapid City in 1969, after teaching and coaching in Lemmon and Huron, to be the first basketball coach at Rapid City Stevens High School.

He then worked in several school-administrative jobs before retiring in 2001. He died four years ago at age 67, but continues to affect his son's life by the way he had lived his own.

"If you knew him, he was very humble," Alan Hanks said. "Everybody loved him. You talk to anybody who knew him here in Rapid City. When it's my time to go, I only hope that I have the respect that my dad had."

Hanks wouldn't mind having his dad's golf game, either.

"That is what was embarrassing for me, to have your 65-year-old father spotting you a hole while playing golf," Hanks said.

There was an expectation by many who knew the family that Alan would follow his dad into teaching and coaching. But he fell in love with business instead, and eventually added elected office to his list of accomplishments - first at the city council level, then the state Legislature and now in the mayor's office.

In all of those situations, Hanks said his dad's natural instruction proved valuable.

"It all comes down to how you treat people, how you relate to people, and how you get the most out of people," Hanks said. "My dad was never into material things. He was into people. It was all about relationships."

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