KINGSTON — Few people are able to touch a whole town, community or area with their actions. Those who do often are invisible until they are gone because they are seen so often.

One of those people who truly was such a community activist was Robert Meredith. Residents reading the name might be thinking, “Who?”

Perhaps the name “Uncle Bud” will ring a few bells. He was known by that moniker and throughout the community for his activism and neighborliness.

“It sounds like you make stuff up,” said Tom Davies, a close friend of Meredith’s. “Just because he did so much, and really liked helping people.”

“He was always a neighbor and a friend,” added Roddy Reynolds, Meredith’s neighbor. “He was down to earth, you couldn’t find a more natural, personable person.”

Meredith was a familiar face in Kingston, and he was always around, residents agree. He was a part of the Kingston Cove Yacht Club, the Kingston Kiwanis, American Legion Post 245, VFW Post 1263 and helped with the Chuckwagon program, providing hot meals for the elderly, said Bob Lee, Meredith’s good friend.

“When he started, he was feeding people older than himself,” Lee said with a chuckle. “But when he finished, he was feeding people much younger.”

Meredith volunteered for everything, Lee said.

Kingston Cove Yacht Club member Laura Zetterberg said. Meredith had his fingers in every part of the community, if for no other reason than to help out.

“He volunteered for everything. He was a wonderful, genuine person who liked to help other people,” Zetterberg said, adding that her favorite memory of Meredith was his dancing. “He was one of the best dancers. We would swing dance, down at the KCYC. It was such a good group.”

Meredith’s great moves didn’t end there.

“Even when he was 80, he would help with road clean ups,” Lee said, noting that Bud could often be seen traipsing across neighbors’ roofs until just before he died, making repairs. “He worked with young children, and played Santa Claus.”

Meredith took Santa Claus to the next level, traveling to St. Petersburg, Russia and T’ai Pei, Taiwan to portray the man in red for children there.

“He played Santa Claus so well,” Davies said. “Maybe he really was Santa Claus.”

Meredith didn’t just volunteer, he pulled other people into helping in the community, too. Zetterberg said she joined the KCYC because of Meredith, and Davies joined Kiwanis, KCYC and played Santa Claus with him.

“He did everything,” Davies said. “He didn’t want glory for it, either.”

Many people work in the community, Davies said, and work for a difference but Meredith was special, because he did it all, and for no reward but the feeling he got from it.

Meredith died April 26, at the age of 83 from lung cancer, though he didn’t smoke, Lee said. He was also starting to have heart failure, and was suffering from double pneumonia.

“By the time his lungs cleared, and he could breath a bit without oxygen, the cancer had spread from his lungs through his body,” Lee said.

“He left a big hole in the community,” Lee said. “People will start noticing what he did. They took him him for granted while he was around.”

Meredith will be missed by the community, and his neighbors, Davies said, noting that Kingston will be hard pressed to find someone as special as Uncle Bud again.