We all have lessons to learn from the life of one of our neighbors who died last week.

Mac Lawton, co-owner of Dixie Lumber Company and active member of Easley First Baptist Church, offered us important lessons for dealing with others and living a life. Chief among them is the idea of service to others.

He is remembered as a man whose chief aim was to serve others and to serve his God by doing so. It was for that characteristic of service that he was honored last August with South Carolina’s Order of the Silver Crescent.

He was a regular to the choir at the church and he is known for founding the 567 Club, a church organization that focused on the needs of young men for a strong male figure in their lives.

He termed the need as one for constancy and discipline, so he organized a group of other people in the community to demonstrate the objectives of constancy and discipline. It was not a harsh discipline but one that demonstrates the requirements of living a life of growth. They did homework, played basketball. They would have devotional, and they would share a meal at the Tuesday night meetings of the 567 Club.

The demonstration showed that to improve we all must work. We can have fun as the boys do playing basketball, but a part of the enjoyment comes from working as a team. Lawton also believed that there was benefit in acknowledging the importance of an authority higher than man.

He talked about the importance of these things but he is also known for living the ideals. One of the frequent indicators of Lawton constancy was his demonstration by showing up every Tuesday night. He told us that being available to the boys of the 567 Club was a key ingredient in showing them that someone cared about them.

One final thing is that Lawton is known for avoiding the spotlight. He did not want attention placed on him, his friends will say.

In that spirit, what we say here is not so much an attempt to place Lawton on a pedestal but to acknowledge and encourage similar actions as a way of improving our community.