TOWN OF LANCASTER, N.Y. -- People in Lancaster are remembering a long-time supervisor who was devoted to helping his community in multiple roles.
Bob Giza died Tuesday at the age of 79 after a brief illness.
Giza served as Lancaster's Town Supervisor for 16 years and was a councilmember for 14 years before that. As a councilman he helped coordinate the building of a senior center and youth center on the south end of the town, said the Town of Lancaster's current supervisor Johanna Coleman.
"You look at the growth we had here in town...Bob was always able to make sure he could usher things through for the community," she said.
While he served as Lancaster's Town Supervisor, Coleman said Giza was always accessible.
"His door was always open here," she said.
Giza's also remembered for his around 30 years of helping children as executive director of the Depew-Lancaster Boys and Girls Club.
"He molded a lot of lives," Coleman said.
In addition Giza served as a physical education teacher at St. Mary's Elementary School.
"He's just a person of the people and I think people like that always make your community better, whether it's a small circle of a community or it's a large town of 40-some thousand people," Coleman said. "He was a positive influence on a lot of people."
Even over the past four or five years, Giza volunteered on the town's recreation commission, Coleman said.
Giza's death comes just a month after his wife passed away.