Look up the word “raconteur” and you will see it defined as one skilled in the narration of anecdotes and stories. What a waste of words. They could have just written this: Philip Cleaveland.

Cleaveland, who died Thursday at age 90, was admired for many things - excellence in business, devotion to family, leadership in clubs, community and countless worthy causes - but it was his matchless way with words, especially his ability to make people laugh, for which he was most affectionately remembered at his funeral service Monday.

A lifelong wit - voted funniest in his LaGrange High graduating class of 1935 - Cleaveland regaled audiences for decades, charming and disarming his listeners - from the dinner table to the board room, at countless public podiums and enough “roasts” to light a conflagration.

But Cleaveland was far more than a comic genius. He was a patriot, a Christian gentleman, a self-made man who, with just a high school education, worked his way from the supply room to the president’s office at Callaway Mills. A family story has it that a mill worker, hearing that Cleaveland had been named to head the company, remarked, “That’s terrific. He’s one of us.”

And that quality, Dr. Stuart Gulley said in remarks at the funeral, carried over into every aspect of his long and distinguished life. Though Cleaveland walked in high places, he was always acutely attuned to the pulse of his community. For decades, virtually nothing that was good and important was achieved here without his support and active participation.

Gulley quoted the English author and scholar, G.K. Chesterton, who said, “There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great.”

That was Philip Cleaveland. A great man, rich in wisdom and wit, endowed with zeal for good works and zest for life, a matchless orator who enlightened and enlivened the world around him.

That was Philip Cleaveland. A great man who inspired others to be better than they thought they could be and accomplish more than they dreamed they could do.

That was Philip Cleaveland. A great man who was friend and mentor, jokester and jocular companion, a leader who could make you laugh, even as you wrote a check or said “Yes, I’ll do it.”

That was Philip Cleaveland. A great man whose stories will be told and retold and whose legacy will be felt far longer than the 90 years we were blessed to have him on this planet and in this place.

That was Philip Cleaveland. The real great man who made everyone who knew him feel great.