Just days after becoming executive director of the United Way, I was sitting in my new office, sorting through the daunting challenge ahead, when Bill Lawrence dropped in for a quick visit.

After a few difficult years, everyone knew there was a lot of work to do, and Bill wasn’t one to shy away from a good challenge. He offered to make phone calls, serve on committees and use his considerable connections to get people excited and involved once again. One thing’s for sure: Bill was never afraid to provide plenty of gentle persuasion to help an important cause so close to his heart.

I’ll never forget his words that day.

“Don’t you worry one bit; we’ll get this thing turned around,” he promised with calm conviction. “You know I’ll do everything I can to help.”

He remained true to his word.

Despite being in frail health much of the time, Bill was always helping — as he had been for years. He started with the United Way way back in the early ’70s, leading the annual campaign before becoming president of the organization in 1975. Just a few months ago, nearly four decades after his first campaign, Bill agreed to serve as honorary campaign chairman for this year’s effort.

And it wasn’t just the United Way. Bill was deeply involved in the Boy Scouts of America, receiving its Distinguished Citizen’s Award three years ago, and helped guide the Sanford Rotary, Highway to Healing, our local Boys and Girls Clubs and First Baptist Church, among many others.

In fact, he worked so tirelessly — and effectively — for our community that Bill was honored in 2008 with The Sanford Herald’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

Bill Lawrence passed away a few weeks ago. He already is sorely missed and, in countless ways, we’re all a little bit diminished by the loss.

In other ways, though, we should be encouraged. We continue to be blessed by the legacy he leaves behind, including the many people he influenced and an example of selfless service we can all aspire to reach.

It’s true that not everyone has the time or skills to make this kind of commitment, but everyone can help in some way.

Bill got started quietly, without fanfare, as Scoutmaster for Troop 941 in Sanford. Countless others in our community have done the same — spending just a few hours now and then reading to children, driving cancer patients to the doctor, collecting food for the needy, hammering nails to help a family get a new home or reading news articles for the blind.

Just think what a difference you can make in someone’s life by doing the same thing — and how much there is to gain yourself. Bill always talked about the wonderful people he met along the way and the enormous sense of satisfaction he enjoyed by watching struggling adults turn around their lives or young people walk through doors of opportunity.

That’s something Bill Lawrence understood as well as anyone. It’s why he decided to get involved and why, despite his failing health, he continued serving his neighbors until the very end.

If all of us followed his example, volunteering just a few hours each month, just imagine the lasting impact we could have on others and how much stronger we all would be.

So consider how you can make your own impact. It would be a fitting way to honor someone like Bill Lawrence — and it could end up being his (and your) most lasting contribution of all.