Jay Rumbelow and his ex-wife, Lori, would sometimes kick off baseball season at their Bruno’s Pizza and Pasta restaurants with baseball pizzas, cupcakes and other souvenir treats. Jay, a longtime lover of baseball, passed away on Tuesday.

“How much time do you have?”

When friends and loved ones were called to reflect on the life and legacy of Jay Rumbelow, the owner and manager of Bruno’s Pizza and Pasta, this was their resounding response.

Because, “Nobody could ever say enough good things about Jay,” they said.

“He had a heart of gold.”

Jay, a ‘73 graduate of Bullard High School and University of Texas at Tyler alumnus, passed away on Tuesday. He was 65.

Jay is remembered for his unending willingness to lend a helping hand – usually in the form of fresh-made bread or heaping platefuls of spaghetti.

He could always be counted on to cater a meal, donate to a cause or stay open after hours to the benefit of local churches, schools and businesses in need.

“He leaves a void that will never be filled,” said his sister-in-law, Katie Lasseter, on Facebook. “Jay was the most giving, selfless person I knew and always put others before himself.”

He loved talking baseball, and had such a passion for the game that he helped to build a new baseball field in Bullard for the Little Leaguers, said Chase Colston, a Bullard native and lifelong friend of the Rumbelow family.

“If I could put it simply,” Colston began, “he had a heart of gold. He never met a stranger. It’s really heartbreaking to lose somebody who has been that impactful on more than one community … The world is a darker place without him.”

Colston said he grew up at Bruno’s, and could recall the days before the expansion, when the original restaurant was only a single room on Vine Street.

Jay’s parents, the late John Walter Rumbelow and Josephine, founded that first location way back in 1976.

Jay took over in ‘91, expanded the original restaurant and even opened a second location, on Old Jacksonville Highway, in 2008.

Today, both restaurants are famous for their made-from-scratch meatballs, fresh bread and lasagna, and pizzas served with generous amounts of toppings.

But it was Jay’s unending supply of kindness and hospitality that kept everyone coming back, Colston said.

Though he was a Boston Red Sox fan through and through, Jay was still proud when his son, Nick, a pitcher for Louisiana State University, was drafted in the seventh round by the New York Yankees in 2013.

So much so that he and his ex-wife, Lori, would sometimes kick off baseball season at their restaurants with pizzas made to look like actual baseballs, cupcakes and other souvenir treats – all of it to honor the game, their oldest son and his fulfillment of that lifelong dream.

Jay “truly cared about people” and was “just all around, the good kind of person,” Colston said.

Ronny Christie, who had known Jay since 1980 and played softball against him “for many, many years,” couldn’t agree any more.

“Last year, I had a party at his restaurant out on 155,” Christie said. “He donated the room, and all the drinks, and everything. That’s just the kind of guy he was.”

Christie said he was always more than willing to bake breads and pizzas for those working the press boxes at football games.

“He donated all the time, all over the place,” Christie said. “He was a good family man.”

Christie recalled that his daughter, ever since she was a little girl, would request Jay’s half order of spaghetti with a smile.

When she got older and went to law school up in Oklahoma City, Jay even offered to put his spaghetti on dry ice to send to her.

“He knew her and how much she enjoyed that spaghetti,” Christie said. “He was always willing to do that kind of thing.”

“He was a great friend. A great teammate. A great opponent,” Christie said. “He competed, but after he walked off the softball field you were still his friend. To me, it says a lot about him and other people like him.”

In a Facebook post, Ashley Moss, a former employee of Jay’s, recalled the endless positive impact he had on her life.

“When I was 15, I got my first job at Bruno’s on Vine,” Moss wrote. “I was excited because I would have money and didn’t know that getting that job would mean I would be getting a second family as well. Throughout the last 16 years, I have grown closer with an amazing work family and the unbelievable person who taught me everything about business, dedication, fun, and hard work. Jay has been a constant in my life for as long as I can remember.”

When she was struggling a little later on in life, she turned to Jay.

“He told me to come home and accomplish my dreams and to ‘get my butt to work,’” Moss said. “That’s what I did. I came home and started nursing school and worked for him. He didn’t need me, he just wanted me to be there … I wouldn’t be the person I am today without him.”

Jay leaves behind his three sons, Ryan, Nick, and Trevor, and many loving family members.

A visitation is scheduled for Friday from 5 to 7 p.m. at Lloyd James Funeral Home. Services will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturday at First Baptist Church of Bullard. The family has asked that, in lieu of flowers, donations are made to a charity of choice in Jay’s honor.