Connecting people. He would support local business, join various social groups, just to support them. He would often volunteer time to help with whatever these people needed. He would rarely pick sides and instead always try to explain why the other side wasn't completely wrong.

I used to think that he was just doing things for others without having strong opinion on anything... but later I realized that he became so respected in the community that he would often be the only person that all sides of an argument were willing to talk to, and as a result he had more influence than the opinionated people fighting for their causes.

I still haven't learned it :-)