Herb Young loved Cary. And Cary loved him right back. Some called him the godfather of Cary’s parks and sport leagues, but father would be more like it.

At Young’s death last week at the age of 84, the little town he’d grown up in (in fact, he was born there) was a metropolis, and it happens to have a parks and recreation operation that is the envy of its neighbors.

Thank Herb Young for a good bit of that. He ran the Triangle Swim Club for nearly 40 years. Parks and recreation were his avocation, and he did a half-century of volunteer work for the town.

Most everyone knew that smiling face, generally the first one seen at committee meetings about sports leagues or all types of recreational activities. There never has been much of a discussion about who the top parks and rec volunteer in Cary has been. Herb Young, going away, no contest.

In fact, the Herbert C. Young Community Center was named for him in 2001.

Now it follows to ask if Herb Young was like a lot of people who get interested in recreation and sports, someone who was not much of an athlete but believed in exercise and good fun. Well, the latter was true of Young, but it happens he had have quite the athletic career. He played a little football down Chapel Hill way in the 1940s, where he would center the ball to a teammate by the name of Charlie “Choo Choo” Justice,” still regarded as the greatest football player the school ever produced.

Lots of folks are sad to have lost Herb Young. He’d likely tell them that, instead of mourning, they need to get out and go for a swim or head to the park and play some ball with the kids. Thanks, Herb.