Former Louisville Alderman Paul Bather died in Houston. May he rest in peace.

Paul Bather, 62, who served several terms as Louisville’s 12th Ward alderman and later several years as a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives, died Tuesday in a Houston, Texas, hospital.

He had been fighting pancreatic cancer and living in Houston.

Louisville Metro Council member Cheri Bryant Hamilton, D-5th District, had been the aldermanic clerk when she replaced Bather in 2000 as 12th Ward alderman, after Bather was elected to the 43rd state House seat.

Hamilton said today that she probably would not be an elected official, if it had not been for Bather. “He mentored me. He just didn’t throw me out there. He helped me along,” Hamilton said.

“He loved the people in the 12th Ward, and they loved him. He was always thinking of how he could make the community better,” she said.