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On Oct. 19, thousands of pairs of feet will pound the downtown pavement in Greensboro's 28th annual CROP Hunger Walk, which benefits the Potter's House kitchen at Greensboro Urban Ministry as well as the Church World Service's hunger- and poverty-fighting programs in more than 80 countries.

Those of us walking will be thinking about Bill Glasgow, the event's successful coordinator for the past two years.

Bill's dedication to ending world hunger went far beyond Greensboro. In March, he agreed to assist me with a training event for CROP Hunger Walk team leaders from cities and towns across South Carolina.

We planned to meet at the corner of Wendover Avenue and Cridland Road at 5:30 a.m. March 13 and drive together.

To this end, he drafted a meticulously detailed map with diagrams and instructions, going so far as to tell me in which direction his parked car would be facing. This was Bill at his most conscientious, dotting every "i" and crossing every "t." At the bottom of the map was his cell phone number.

Bill never showed.

A day or two before we were to drive together to Columbia, he suffered a fatal heart attack on the tennis court. He was 81.

Bill departed this world playing a sport that he loved so much that he'd once proclaimed that he'd be happy if his final breath came as he was chasing down a serve. Sometimes good people's prayers are heard and granted.

On the topic of prayers, an ardent one of Bill's was that we end the blight of hunger. As wealthy a nation as we are, he proffered that there was no good reason for 33 million Americans to go hungry, nor why 16,000 children in the world should die each day from hunger -- one child every six seconds.

At the meetings of the CROP Hunger Walk organizing team held monthly at the Greensboro Urban Ministry on Lee Street, Bill inaugurated the practice, at the start of each meeting, of our remembering why we were gathered and had us recite together the following prayer:

For food in a world where many walk in hunger,

For faith in a world where many walk in fear,

For friends in a world where many walk alone,

We give you thanks, O God. Amen

And we did remember. Of some 2,000 CROP Hunger Walks in the United States, Greensboro's walk has consistently ranked as No. 2; Charlotte has ranked as the No. 1 CROP Hunger Walk in the nation for the past 15 years.

In 2007, Durham, which holds a spring CROP Walk -- and which for many years has held the No. 3 spot -- edged out Greensboro for the No. 2 position.

Bill was not going to let that stand. While he agreed that a walk's national ranking was not the primary reason why we got out there and walked, he insisted, with a twinkle in his eye, that neither should it be dismissed as an insignificant motivating factor. After all, didn't St. Paul of Tarsus encourage the early Christians to "vie with one another in doing good?"

And so the "gauntlet having been thrown" by Durham, Bill dived into the task of winning back the prized No. 2 spot for Greensboro. It was done in remarkably good spirit.

He suggested that the wager be a baseball bat.

If Durham emerged the winner, the Greensboro CROP team would secure for them a Greensboro Grasshoppers baseball bat. Should Greensboro come out triumphant, the Durham team would hand over a Durham Bulls baseball bat.

Bill then carefully and masterfully orchestrated Greensboro's most successful CROP Hunger Walk ever.

On Oct. 14, 2007, under his expert leadership, Greensboro marshaled out an army of some 5,000 hunger-fighters and raised an unprecedented $232,000 for the hungry, compared with Durham's $200,176.

Bill was gleeful! On Dec. 13, Jenny Shafer, Durham CROP Hunger Walk's team leader, dutifully presented Bill with a Durham Bulls bat. The bat is on display in the office where Bill worked at Greensboro Urban Ministry.

It is altogether fitting that this year's CROP Hunger Walk in Greensboro -- Oct. 19, starting at 2 p.m. at NewBridge Bank Park -- be dedicated to his memory.

If the Christian tenet of the "communion of saints" holds any water, then Bill Glasgow will be walking with us. I like to imagine him moving excitedly around the edges of this year's event, encouraging walkers not to grow weary of combating what the World Health Organization calls the planet's No. 1 scourge: hunger.

Joe Moran is the regional director of the CROP Hunger Walk Program for North Carolina and South Carolina.