Illinois has lost two former governors in roughly four months.

On May 2, former Gov. George Ryan died at 91 in his native Kankakee. Now the man who preceded him in office has succeeded him in death, as former Gov. Jim Edgar succumbed to pancreatic cancer Sunday in Springfield.

Whereas Ryan’s tenure ended in shame during my early journalism career, Edgar’s time as the state’s chief executive took me from middle school to early college. My first thought of Ryan remains a striking positive: the vital part he played in ending capital punishment in Illinois. When thinking of Edgar, the buzzword is pensions.

Writing for Capitol News Illinois, Hannah Meisel and Jerry Nowicki explained Edgar was “the lead architect of the state’s 50-year plan to adequately fund pensions by the year 2045. The measure – which has since been dubbed the “Edgar ramp” – was put in place to direct state funds to a pension system that had been shortchanged for decades. While lawmakers from both parties have criticized the plan, none have put forward a plan to replace it in the three decades since it passed.

That’s obviously only part of Edgar’s legacy. Public statements flowed forth Sunday evening, almost all of them glowing tributes to a dedicated public servant or, at the very least, sincere respect for someone who could cling to their principles without crossing the lines of decency and fair play.

Standing out among the remembrances is a popular Edgar quote. It’s one I can’t recall hearing but resonates as something I suggest every elected official tape to the office wall: “To me, the best politics is good government.”

Edgar was a native Oklahoman but spent almost his entire childhood in Charleston. Unlike Ryan, who trained to be a pharmacist, Edgar’s political path was conventional. He started volunteering for presidential campaigns while pursuing a history degree and eventually served as student body president at his hometown Eastern Illinois University. From there, it was straight into government, working as a legislative intern and in other staff posts.

Though he failed to win his first primary election, in 1976 Edgar captured a state House seat. Five years later, he was Secretary of State. Edgar was 44 years old when he won his first gubernatorial election in 1990 and only 53 when he announced he’d retire from politics rather than seek a third term or run for U.S. Senate.

If, instead of Peter Fitzgerald, Edgar had defeated Carol Moseley Braun, would Barack Obama have succeeded in his 2004 bid for that seat? Imagine a world in which Edgar and Dick Durbin were Senate colleagues for a quarter century.

Edgar’s retirement wasn’t silent. Hopefully, his message of pursuing good government continues to reverberate.

• Scott T. Holland writes about state government issues for Shaw Local News Network. He can be reached at sholland@shawmedia.com.