For years, small towns across the country were defined by their drug stores. These were places where townspeople came for medicine and conversation, and no Main Street was complete without one. The drug store always featured a counter where the regulars sat. Kids could come in after school and have a soda pulled for them from a tap. Most importantly, at the center of each of these drug stores was a proprietor who knew everybody in town -- their family history, the latest gossip, and every ailment they'd ever had.

In Grantsville, that man was Bob Halladay, who owned and operated Grantsville Drug in a red brick building on the corner of Main and Hale streets for 45 years. Halladay passed away last Friday at the age of 75, leaving a hole in the heart of his beloved town.

Halladay loved good conversation, and his store was as much a spot to socialize as it was a place of business. Even buying a pen or a bag of licorice was an occasion to chat about work, family or the doings around town -- the antithesis of the sterile, swipe-your-card transactions in check-out lines today. A soda -- pulled from a 75-year-old tap -- or a cup of coffee entitled the purchaser to at least a half-hour's worth of verbal entertainment, with opinions flying left and right. Halladay possessed the rare ability to make anyone feel comfortable, causing people to naturally gravitate to him. The morning regulars at his counter were so regular they had their own seats, and if a tourist took one he could expect someone standing right behind him until he vacated. Even after the drug store closed at 7 p.m., friends would come in through the back door and stay until late at night with Halladay at the center of the group.

Halladay was also the de facto historian and archivist of Grantsville. His father, Sterling Halladay, had run the old Bluebird Café and bus stop in town, and Bob knew stories going back to the turn of the century. He collected historical materials on Grantsville, including hundreds of old photographs, and read almost any book he could find on the town and the West in general. He was also an avid photographer in his own right, documenting the changing people and landscapes of Tooele County over more than half a century.

Bob Halladay's passing is a sad occasion, but it does not have to mark the end of an era. The small-town values he exemplified -- love of his neighbors, a strong sense of place and history, a desire to bring others together -- can be adopted by the next generation of local merchants, whether they run a small shop or an outlet of a national franchise. Passing that torch would be the greatest tribute Grantsville could give to a man who gave so much to his hometown.