Good things come in small packages, the adage says, but so can sad things, a truth that was impressed upon us late last week when we read a brief article in the paper reporting that Charldean Newell had resigned from the Denton Public Utilities Board.

Newell had served on the board since 1997, and was its chairwoman at the time of her resignation.

The Public Utilities Board is one of the most powerful and important of the city’s “advisory” boards, keeping a sharp eye on the services, policies and rates of the municipally owned utility company. Utilities are often a volatile subject in Denton, and Newell’s encyclopedic knowledge of public policy and her cool-headed pragmatism served the board well in periods of calm and controversy alike.

Newell is a college professor by trade, a Regents Professor Emerita of Public Administration at the University of North Texas. (That’s academic talk for, ”She knows what she’s talking about.”) Her list of academic accomplishments is long and, if the truth be known, a little daunting to those of us whose brief and undistinguished academic careers were punctuated with threats of probation and terse, icy letters from the dean of men.

But her list of services to the community as a whole is even longer, and is anything but daunting. It is inspiring.

Charldean Newell is one of those rare people with a passion for solving civic problems and a dispassionate method for arriving at those solutions. Though active in local political circles, she has somehow managed to avoid the argle-bargle of low political rhetoric, always stating her preferences in cool, logical and persuasive terms.

And when it comes to public service, Newell has always put politics aside to serve with impartiality and a startling degree of competence.

She has been the chairwoman of the Denton Civil Service Commission. She was a member of a City Council committee that drafted a term-limits amendment to the city charter in 1979. She also served on a committee that drew up an ethics policy for elected officials.

She is a former board chairwoman of the Denton Christian Preschool and a former vice chairwoman of Our Daily Bread, a local soup kitchen that serves the needy and homeless.

She has been active in the fields of public education and the arts.

Indeed, there is practically no facet of life in Denton on which Newell has not had a positive impact.

So we were saddened to read of her resignation, and even sadder to learn that it was for health reasons. She is having difficulties getting about, she told our reporter, and “I’m not going to be unreliable when I have a position like that.”

That short statement just about sums up Charldean Newell. That combination of altruism and pragmatic thinking has guided her entire career in academic and public life. We can only thank her for her selfless service, and wish her every good fortune in the days and years ahead.