“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good therefore that I can do or any kindness that I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it. For I shall not pass this way again.This is the maxim by which Hometown Hero Mac McCloskey says he attempts to live out his days.When McCloskey sees a need, he’s on it, whether that means he himself takes care of it or he finds the right person to do it, says community volunteer Herb Bacon. Mac is witty and downright funny, a real comic, Bacon said. He also has a deep, compassionate heart for others’ shortcomings and for those less fortunate. Another active volunteer, Jim Eakin, says McCloskey is the most generous and kind human being he’s ever met. Unbeknownst to the families, McCloskey has paid for kids to have riding lessons, or paid off their weaner wagon food tabs during 4-H shows.Mac does so much good everywhere, a lot of it is never known, Eakin said. He has a heart for kids especially. I don’t know where it comes from, but he has it. Just ask anyone at Bayview High School.We are so fortunate that Mac — and his wife Lin, too — have chosen our school to bestow his kindness on, said Bayview instructor Jean Shaw. He first began his involvement as a Bayview board member, and as he learned about the students’ needs, he began donating everything from art and garden supplies to a badly needed new refrigerator. He also comes and spends his time with the students.Bayview student Mary Greene says all the students really appreciate and enjoy McCloskey. He shows us he cares about us, she said.Shaw said she doesn’t think there is anything McCloskey wouldn’t do for the kids at Bayview.All the students simply love him. He has become the ‘GRAND-father’ of Bayview.McCloskey simply says, My heart and soul are with the kids at Bayview.He says many kids today get a bum break. All kids have a rough time in this fast-paced world. They all need positive attention and healthy guidance, McCloskey said. They sure aren’t going to get anything good from television, he added.He says he thinks about these kids and their school every day. They’re a part of me, he said. If I can reach just one student to motivate, to let him or her know each life has meaning, well, then, that fives my life meaning, too.And he says he doesn’t know why, but, he said, The Bayview kids just got to me. I can really relate to them.How does someone McCloskey’s age relate to teens of the 1990s?Reluctantly he tells of his own teen years, a time he says he purposefully does not think about or talk about.When he was seven years old, his mother passed away. Shortly thereafter, his only two siblings (two sisters) also died. Later, during the stock market crash of 1929, his father lost everything.My father lost all interest in life. He became despondent, and sank into depression, McCloskey said. He was no longer a parent to his son.At the age of 14, McCloskey began to be shuffled from one relative to another. No one seemed to want him, and some of the homes were unhappy environments, where he was not treated well.He had no one to relate to, no one to talk over problems with. He felt all alone, he said. He became depressed himself, and withdrew into himself. On the outside, he tried to put up a good front. And since no one seemed to notice or care about him, he began to do poorly in school.I just didn’t have any motivation or interest in anything, he said. But he says, then, I don’t believe in living in the past. They just plain weren’t happy times.Did anyone encourage McCloskey to regain some hope and interest in his own life?Oh, yes, he said, his face brightening, eager to talk again. Oh, yes, two very special people, my history teacher Teresa Nelson, and Edna Keyes, my school counselor. Both of these people took a personal interest in the young McCloskey.They noticed my grades were poor. They required better from me. They encouraged me, made me accountable to them, and gave me a reason to want to do better.Their influence didn’t take effect all at once, of course, and McCloskey says he still lived a life of loose ends until his early twenties.His wife Lin says he still speaks about these two important people in his life, and what they did for him.Now, McCloskey focuses forward, and never dwells on negative events in his past.Friend Mike Hoffman says that when he and his wife Sydney learned McCloskey had been selected a Hometown Hero, they both agreed they could not think of a more deserving person.Strange how things like this can make you feel so good and satisfied inside, Hoffman said. One learns that of all our responsibilities in life, none are more important than our awareness of community and our service to it.Hal Doyle, another friend, describes McCloskey as someone whose enthusiasm infuses volunteerism in others.I’m sure he would even volunteer to be the pallbearer for his worst enemy — that is, if he had one, Doyle said. When his last job is done, let’s hope he is on duty as a volunteer to hold open the pearly gates for the rest of us.McCloskey says that as a child, what he wanted to become more than anything was a good, decent and respectable human being.His community would agree that he’s achieved his desire.”