Henry Massey grew up in Waxhaw, went to high school there.

He graduated from college in Davidson, got a degree in economics.

He chose Atlanta over New York to begin his career and start a family.

He lives in Gastonia, in a retirement cottage with his wife, Emily.

But his heart, his community pride, is in Mount Holly.

Massey, 83, moved to Mount Holly in 1959 when his Uncle Bo gave him a job at his store, down on Main Street near the railroad tracks. “His primary business was sales and distribution of products, mill supplies and retail hardware at Massey Hardware. He didn’t have any children, so he gave me the opportunity to work with him,” Massey says. “It was a little different from banking!”

Banking is what Massey did in Atlanta. But his schedule, and the fact that Atlanta is perpetually on fast-forward, wasn’t the ticket for a guy with a wife and little baby.

Mount Holly won.

His new job initiated a life-long bond with the city and a commitment to provide for its athletes, schools and community parks. That devotion led to his induction in the Mount Holly Sports Hall of Fame as recipient of the Community Spirit award.

“I’m very humbled about it. We’ve had a lot of people who have worked hard for our young people,” he says.

But let’s back up.

Spending his childhood in Waxhaw gave Massey an affection for small towns. “My parents were from there, but it’s grown up a whole lot since I’ve been there. When I graduated from high school, there were only 23 students in my graduating class,” he says. “Now they have three high schools servicing Waxhaw students. But that’s from being on the end of Providence Road, and all that Charlotte has pushed down there.”

He played first base for the baseball team and center on the basketball team, and added a little American Legion ball and something called semi-pro, though he says no one ever got paid.

He received his degree from Davidson in 1957 and went to work. “I got my first job right off the Davidson campus. Back in those days, they were recruiting pretty heavy on campus. I went to New York to look at something in banking, but I went to Atlanta,” he says. “At that time, I thought I wanted to be a banker. We’d go all over town, and they’d put you in the banks in their training programs.”

His children were born in 1958, 1961, 1963 and 1964.With Mount Holly being called home by the time his second child was born, he began to invest in his surroundings, becoming involved with the Chamber of Commerce, Junior Civitans and his church, which he still attends. He became chairman of the Mount Holly School Board in the mid-60s, before Gaston County, Gastonia and Cherryville’s boards became one.

And Massey made himself a to-do list to help local schools.

He helped raise money for high school band uniforms, when Mount Holly High and Stanley High were ready to merge and become East Gaston.

He helped raise money to build East Gaston High School a football stadium. “That’s a big drive we had in the city, and it was a time frame when everyone pitched in really well on that,” he says. “Some of us went to see some really good prospects, and we received good money from people who had businesses in Mount Holly.”

He became chairman of Mount Holly Parks and Recreation, to improve opportunities for citizens to enjoy the city’s facilities. “It’s like being a Sunday School teacher. You get in there, and you’re in for life,” he says. “We’ve got a real good group that’s grown together and worked together to bring Tuck Park (Tuckaseegee) up to the level it is now. At one time it was a ‘field of dreams,’ that’s all it was. Then we bought some adjoining property, and everything’s worked out real well.”

Massey was an integral part of the city receiving a $500,000 grant from the State of North Carolina, and the city providing a matching grant for the park. “Some of us had worked really hard contacting people,” he says.

He says his Hall of Fame selection came as a surprise.

“I feel like a lot of these people who have been selected, not just the athletes but the stand-bys like we are, we just want to help people in the community and help the young people,” he says. “Somewhere down the line, someone paid for a place for them to play.”