Three years ago, Dick Nelson began collecting golf balls and clubs to donate to Bunkers in Baghdad, the charity founded and run by Goldberg Segalla partner Joseph M. Hanna that has shipped more than 4.5 million golf balls and 100,000 clubs to U.S. troops and wounded warriors across the world.

After battling macular degeneration earlier this year, Dick has become legally blind and hasn’t driven a car since March — but that hasn’t stopped his collection efforts. “I’m up over 120,000 balls and 9,000 clubs,” Dick proudly told the Post-Journal of his hometown Jamestown, New York, in an article profiling his heroic contributions to the Bunkers mission. And he shows no sign of slowing down.

This summer at the annual Bunkers in Baghdad golf tournament — where Dick sunk a 26-foot putt — Joe announced the formation of a new scholarship named after Dick, to recognize and honor his extraordinary service to the charity. “Starting this year, and we presented it already, it’s the Dick Nelson Commitment to Service Scholarship,” Joe told the Post-Journal. “If high school students show similar commitment, dedication to service and helping others, that go above and beyond the everyday calling, they will win the Dick Nelson Commitment to Service Scholarship because he is the model.”

“At the end of the day, there’s nobody like Dick Nelson,” Joe continued. “He’s a veteran, he’s a patriot, he’s just a good man.”

Read the article here:

• “All in a Day’s Sports,” Post-Journal, November 23, 2013