People pass in and out of our lives all the time.

Some leave lasting impressions.

The mere thought of some simply put a smile on your face.

Some are just plain too friendly to forget.

For me, Bob Cowoski falls into all three of those categories.

A longtime basketball official and softball umpire, Cowoski died recently at age 79 after a long illness. But he and I did not first cross paths at a game that way.

I met Bob Cowoski through an omission.

A number of years ago, I wrote a story about a Butler basketball player reaching the 1,000-point plateau. With that article, I included a list of previous Golden Tornado players to score 1,000.

There haven’t been a whole lot of them — and I inadvertently omitted Allyson Cowoski, Bob’s daughter, from the list.

He called me the next day.

He wasn’t angry. He wasn’t disrespectful to me in any way. He didn’t even feel slighted.

Bob went out of his way to describe how difficult he felt our newspaper jobs were, trying to keep track of everything, especially sports records. And he went on to talk about Allyson’s career.

He said how proud he was of her achievements and simply wanted to make me aware of them for future reference.

We even shared a laugh or two before ending our phone conversation.

I hung up thinking to myself: “Now that was a nice guy.”

Bob wound up introducing himself to me at a Butler basketball game he was about to officiate. I brought up that phone conversation and thanked him for his understanding.

He smiled, winked and said life wasn’t word getting mad over.

That was Bob Cowoski.

What a happy, spirited person he was.

We always exchanged pleasantries when we’d bump into each other at a game, a ball field, casino, the mall, wherever.

And how that man loved Butler basketball.

My last encounter with Bob was a few weeks ago in the Butler gym. Despite his declining health, he came to the games in a wheelchair, a surgical mask covering his face.

I saw him across the court, sitting in the first row, went over and said hello.

I couldn’t see much of his face. But his eyes told me he was grinning from ear to ear.

This man cared about his family, the Butler County Sports Hall of Fame, kids and athletics in general.

Bob Cowoski cared, period.

Few things are guaranteed in this world, but I feel pretty safe about saying this: Heaven is an even happier place with Bob Cowoski’s presence.

This guy spread a whole lot of joy around while he was here.

I, like so many others, am grateful for it.

John Enrietto is sports editor of the Butler Eagle