“No job was too small,” said Richard “Bucky” Szulborski of his friend John Cornish Friday afternoon. “Anybody who needed help, he was there to volunteer. He believed in community service.”

Szulborski knew Cornish first in the 80s, when the Christmas City Fair was strapped for cash and support. They became co-chairs of the event, and Zsulborski was impressed with Cornish’s ability to work with people, to pull them together and make things happen.

“The Christmas City Fair had a budget of nothing,” Zsulborski recalls. “Once we were concerned because the security guys’ walkie-talkies weren’t working. John knew the owner of Radio Shack and arranged the donation of cases of batteries [in time for the event].

“He was great to work with and had an ability to make people smile. His involvement is truly missed in the community.”

John Cornish’s son Seth, who twice excused himself for choking up while discussing his father on the phone, said improving the community was intrinsic to the man’s identity. “It shaped everything he was. He always said, ‘You always get out of the community what you put into the community.’”

Cornish said he spent his childhood Saturday mornings folding envelopes for mass mailings and repairing a fire-damaged Pa. Playhouse. “He brought his family into everything. He was a pretty cool man.”

Cornish said his father never looked to build his resume or find recognition from his work, simply insisting volunteerism was his preferred hobby. “Up until he went to the hospital he drove to work every day. He was involved until the very end. He never quit. He was America’s volunteer.

“To me, Bethlehem is going to have a hole in it for a while.”