Veteran sports writer and all-around nice guy Ray Tapley died on April 3 in Vidalia.

He died last week after an injury sustained in a fall at the nursing home in which he was living.

Ray wasn’t a big guy, but he left a huge impression with his rat-a-tat style of talking and the kindness that he showed all.

Ray graduated from Georgia State and worked for Blue Cross of Georgia as a manager, but his real love was covering sporting events. He worked parttime for the AJC for more than 30 years, first as a writer and later as a copy editor.

Ray was also a familiar face at many college and professional events. He produced the play-by-play score sheets on his manual typewriter, for the Georgia Tech basketball and football games, as well as the Atlanta Falcons and Atlanta Hawks.

Ray was a stringer for the AP and covered all the professional teams and Georgia Tech.

For 37 years he was the secretary-treasure of the Atlanta chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America.

He was a columnist for his hometown paper in Vidalia.

Tapley was interested in geneology and wrote two books on family history.

He will be missed by his friends but never forgotten by those who knew him.