In the days leading up to the election of her successor, Waco Mayor Virginia DuPuy has kept a vigorous schedule and, best that I can tell, none of it celebrating her five considerable years in office. Whatever else, she isn’t coasting on her laurels.

Tuesday morning, she was firing up new board members of the Greater Waco Community Education Alliance, including former Whitewater prosecutor Ken Starr, incoming president of Baylor University. My colleague Clifton Robinson says he seldom has felt the excitement he does about this civic endeavor. The group’s mission reflects a personal crusade by this mayor in recent years — and one that will occupy her well after she leaves City Hall.

Later that day DuPuy presided over her umpteenth City Council session, overseeing debate about the merits of a proposed red-light camera system to discourage vehicle collisions at perilous intersections throughout Waco.

Not slowing down

On Wednesday, she spoke glowingly of 10 remarkable youths honored by the Camp Fire USA Tejas Council during Absolutely Incredible Kid Day 2010, again reflecting her fervent belief that education and early childhood development are crucial in addressing poverty and long-term economic development in our area.

Later that day, when I caught up with her by phone, she was in a vehicle full of city officials bound for Austin to a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality dinner where the city of Waco received two awards for environmental excellence — one for an educational program at Lake Waco Wetlands, the other for energy-conservation techniques adopted by the Waco Metropolitan Area Regional Sewer System.

When I talked with her Wednesday, she was breathlessly touting this Thursday’s Community Visioning Project Expo. She credits this initiative with, among other things, forging the master plan for downtown growth during the next four decades.

She also led a ceremony honoring Henry and Helen Randolph for more than 40 years as foster parents, nurturing more than 250 children, and helped plant a live oak for Arbor Day in East Waco. The last I heard from her, she was excitedly telling me how many trees have been planted at Lake Waco to make up for deforestation when the lake level was raised in 2003 — 26,000.

And that’s just what I knew off-hand about her schedule last week. Lord knows what else this thoughtful, mild-mannered 75-year-old woman was up to. I only hope her successor can maintain even half her energy, tact, optimism and overall civic commitment.

DuPuy has another week or so before her term ends, but she believes a momentum is under way, regardless of whether she’s mayor. For her part, she formally assumes the post of unpaid executive director of the Greater Waco Community Education Alliance on June 1, allowing her to magnify her focus on education.

“The wonderful thing about being mayor is that it’s an opportunity to know so much more about what’s happening in this community,” she told me, “and by working with the alliance and the Community Visioning Project I’ll continue to keep up with all that. But in the meantime I have more than enough to do.”

When she became mayor five years ago, some wondered if she was fit for the job. She was unusually soft-spoken for such a dynamic leadership role. And while City Manager Larry Groth praises her graciousness as a city leader, some feared it might prove a weakness.

DuPuy believes that quality has helped her pull those of differing perspectives together when divisive issues arose, such as the struggle over a community resolution about Waco’s ugly lynching past or the battle over a proposed 65-foot concrete statue of dubious quality in front of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

“I’ve worked hard to be respectful to both sides, to really listen carefully, to show both sides honor and respect,” she said. “Of course, it’s the council that ultimately makes those decisions, but I think they listen to each other, too.”

Her civility and hard work have been taken for granted, but I suspect we’ll miss them when she’s left the post of mayor.

Then again, she won’t be going far.