Robert H. Bayard, 78, accountant and mayor

When a childhood friend of Bradley Bayard's learned that his father, Robert H. Bayard, had died this week, he e-mailed his old friend.

"Your dad drafted me in basketball, when he knew I stunk," Bradley Bayard said the friend told him.

And, the friend said, that "made me feel like a great person."

Robert Bayard was coaching the Police Athletic League in Cinnaminson, his son said, when Bradley and the Arizona friend were "probably 12 to 14 years old."

They are now in their mid-40s, Bradley Bayard said, and it was a tribute to his father that the memory had endured.

"That same devotion to the community that he did through basketball," his son said, Mr. Bayard showed to Cinnaminson as a member of its township committee from 1986 to 2001 and as mayor in 1989, 1994, and 2000.

Mr. Bayard, 78, of Cinnaminson, who retired in 2010 as managing partner in the accounting firm of Voynow Bayard Whyte & Co. in Trevose, died Monday, July 27, of kidney failure at Cooper University Hospital in Camden.

According to its website, the firm serves businesses in retail car sales and "real estate management, leasing, and development."

Betteann Norris, Mr. Bayard's longtime secretary, who is now the firm's office manager, said that "he had a very good rapport with all the clients."

Mr. Bayard, she said, "was very friendly . . . liked to joke a lot."

As a township committeeman from 1986 to 2001, Mr. Bayard served all 15 years as Cinnaminson's director of public safety. As a member of the Cinnaminson PAL program, he was a baseball and basketball coach from the late 1960s to the late 1980s.

And he was even more reachable, Bradley Bayard said. "He put his personal home phone on his campaign brochures," he said, "and we would get calls throughout the day."

One of his major accomplishments in office, his son said, was that he started the recycling program in Cinnaminson.

He helped in smaller ways, too.

In the holiday season, the First Presbyterian Church in Moorestown "would provide him with a list of needy families, and he would put food at the door and leave" before anyone could thank him.

In his accounting career, his son Rand said, he was known for "the countless hours that he dedicated to his clients."

In a statement, Frank, George, and Charles Kerbeck of the Kerbeck automobile dealerships, brothers of Mr. Bayard's wife, Constance, recalled him as "a warmhearted and caring husband, father, grandfather, uncle, and friend to so many. His generosity with family, friends, and even strangers in need will be greatly missed."

Mr. Bayard graduated from Germantown High School in 1955 and earned a bachelor's degree in accounting at Temple University in 1960. He began his accounting career that year, became a certified public accountant, and helped found his firm in 1978.

He was a member of the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.

Besides his wife and sons, Mr. Bayard is survived by son Robert K.; two brothers; and three grandchildren.

Viewings and life celebrations were set from 5 to 8 p.m. Thursday, July 30, and 10 to 11 a.m. Friday, July 31, at the First Presbyterian Church, 101 Bridgeboro Rd., Moorestown, before an 11 a.m. funeral service there. Entombment will be in Lakeview Mausoleum, Cinnaminson.

Donations may be sent to the American Diabetes Association at www.diabetes.org.

Condolences may be offered to the family at www.snovergivnish.com.