It would be hard to find a better ambassador for the game of golf than Ralph Noel Jr.

A multi-decade golfer with a list of accolades longer than an oversized driver, Noel Jr. did more than swing a mean club; he played the game properly, espoused etiquette and was intrigued by groundskeeping and course design before it was chic to be so.

Noel Jr., who recently battled the effects of Parkinson’s disease, died last weekend at 77, leaving behind a legacy of good golf, great companionship and inimitable respect for the game.

“We are very sad to hear of the passing of long-time member and friend Ralph Noel Jr.,” Martindale part owner and head pro Nick Glicos said.

Among Noel Jr.’s list of accomplishments were 16 club championships at the Auburn course.

“Maine golf will miss a great champion and true gentleman,” Glicos said.

“He loved the game in all of its aspects,” son Sean Noel said. “Do you know how many types of grass there are on a golf course? I don’t, but Dad did. He loved course design, club design, agronomy, irrigation — pretty much all of the elements that went into the game, he had an interest in. He was on the greenskeeping committee for years and years, he attended scholarship banquets … he loved the game.”

That love of the game blossomed as a student in Auburn. The son of Ralph Noel Sr. and Christina Cunion Noel, Noel Jr. graduated from Edward Little High School in 1957. He won the Maine Junior Championship that year, and repeated the feat a year later. He also played golf and basketball at Colby College in Waterville, from which he graduated.

After a two-year stint in the U.S. Army, Noel returned to Maine, went to work, but always stayed close to the game he loved.

“We settled on that phrase in the obituary, ‘life-long love affair with the game of golf,’ because that was it,” Sean Noel said.

Not long after returning home, Noel Jr. won his first “Maine major,” the Maine Amateur Championship, in 1968. He won back-to-back titles in 1980 and 1981, as well, and earned Maine Senior Amateur titles in 1999 and 2002.

“Maine has lost a true champion both for and of golf with Ralph’s passing,” MSGA Executive Director Nancy Storey said. “As the first executive director of the MSGA, he laid the footprint for where we are today, and where we’re going tomorrow. My only regret is that he won’t be here with us this summer as we celebrate our centennial. He was a great friend to all who loved golf.”

Beyond the top-flight golf was a top-flight person. Much of his family time with his children, of course, also revolved around the game.

“Martindale was our second home growing up,” daughter Kathleen King, of Poland, said. “I even waitressed one summer in high school at the old clubhouse … The tips were pretty good for the club champ’s daughter.”

King and Sean Noel recalled spending not only summers and autumns at the course, but winters and springs, too.

“The three of us, his kids, grew up on the hills of Martindale,” Sean said. “All four seasons — we sledded down the face of the ninth hole, which as a kid, looked like a suicide run. Also, the hill down the 18th hole. Dad would chill Fresca and Twinkies in the snowbank and then we’d dig them up after we hit the hills.”

“When I got a little older, Dad and I played ‘Easter Bunny’ for my brothers, and we would hide goodies at the golf course, literally in the hollow of trees,” King said. “And later, we’d bring my brothers out to find the treats. We would make huge tracks in the snow to further their belief that the bunny delivered just for them at Martindale every year.”

Beyond playing, Ralph loved all aspects of the game.

He worked for many years in his semi-retirement at local courses, such as Dunegrass in Old Orchard Beach and Biddeford-Saco Country Club as a ranger and a starter, and spent time on the course.

He ran MSGA tournaments for many years, and was well-known and respected by golfers all over the state. According to his family, Noel Jr. learned and loved outdoor sports from his father, Ralph Sr. Fishing, hunting, ice-fishing and trapping were all things he loved to do and shared with all of his children, especially Ralph III.

Despite Noel Jr.’s best efforts, only one of his three children — King — took to the game of golf.

“Dad taught me to love the game of golf,” King said. “I didn’t quite inherit his talent, but on more than a few occasions folks have mentioned there is a bit of the ‘Noel mystique’ that can be detected in my swing.

“Dad always thought that anyone could play, as long as they knew their way around a golf course and learned how to play ‘ready golf,'” she added, “all things that he taught me at an early age.”

King, her siblings, and the entire Maine golf community are better for having been simultaneously around Noel Jr. and the game he loved, and he will be missed.