Who's stopping the Best portion of a good person's life?

Who's stopping the Best portion of a good person's life?

I recently spent a long enjoyable lunch with a good friend, Jim Arnold, trying to encapsulate his father into a few stories related to this column’s underlying theme each week: Education.
And who could tell stories about Jack Arnold without mentioning Bristol’s Boys and Girls Club? Jack (along with Charlie Lowry … whose educational influence on Bristol awaits my synopsis for another column) was a monumental lifetime supporter of the club. In fact, Jack’s name became “synonymous” with the club to many of Bristol’s residents over the years.
In 1989, Jack and his family sold their business (the old Moore’s Potato Chips plant, which at that time was doing 74 million dollars of business annually). This allowed Jack to donate even more time and money to the club.

Later on this week I am personally taking every kid at the club hiking for a couple of days at Sugar Hollow Park. I will view firsthand how Jack’s time and money, given so unselfishly to the club, continues to live on in the lives of Bristol’s children, in perpetuity.

Thanks to the current club director, Dick Collins, and the club’s worthy staff and board, the club thrives on as one of our town’s crown jewels for educating children. Rest assured, my friends, any of your time or money donated to the club is very well spent.

However, as with most lives well lived for their fellow man, Jack’s greatest deeds may remain largely unheralded, hidden away, unknown to most. Perhaps this is as it should be, with each of us, and our own best deeds. The poet William Wordsworth penned the words, “The best portion of a good man’s life: his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”
Many Bristolians knew of Jack’s wonderful mind for business. And many more knew of Jack’s long-time support of the club.
But few (as in “hardly any”) knew of what I think may be Jack’s “best portion … his little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”

Jim shared with me what I think was the most amazing fact about his father’s life; Jack Arnold anonymously helped countless local young people through college … buying books, helping with tuition, giving constant encouragement, etc. I will refrain from quantifying in this column the astounding number of young people whom Jack helped in this way (as I think he would prefer me not to say). Just let it be said that Jack’s influence in this “nameless” area of his life may well have been at least as great as is his support of the club.
In fact, Jack’s example stands here as perhaps his most powerful legacy to us all, for it is something that we all can do. Not all of us have a multi-million dollar business. Not all of us can give fortunes to non-profits.

But we can all, each and every one of us, give of our time to uplift someone in some small way ... to encourage some person, young or old, somewhere. In such an endeavor, we are only limited by the size of our hearts, not our bank accounts. Like Jack Arnold, we can all give our best portion. And that best portion, as is true for so many of us in The grand scheme of things, may well be our “little, nameless unremembered acts of kindness and love.”

Source: http://www.heraldcourier.com/news/best-portion-of-a-good-person-s-life/article_03d09e01-c152-51c7-937c-e2e3d03c49a6.html