GOSHEN — Ask longtime regulars at Spruce Corner Restaurant about John Bird, and many will describe a small boy racing through the dining room, always trailing close behind his father, Jerry Bird, the longtime owner of Goshen’s beloved breakfast and lunch spot.

Now, decades later, John Bird is still running around the restaurant — only this time, he’s handling the errands his father once did daily following Jerry Bird’s sudden death at age 56 on July 9.

“For the longest time growing up, he would work six days a week. Tuesdays he had off to do paperwork, run around, pick up odds and ends for food products for the place,” John Bird said while sitting at one of the restaurant’s few tables last week. “It’s funny all the things I have to go through now. All the running around reminds me of what he did for years — go to the bank, go to BJ’s — just run around.”

John Bird said he doesn’t know what the future holds for Spruce Corner, but the restaurant will remain open for now. Its hours have been reduced, and it is now closed Mondays and Tuesdays.

“I’m just keeping it going for him now,” he said. “I don’t know what the future brings.”

During a breakfast rush one day last week, customers and employees remembered Jerry Bird as generous, funny and deeply devoted to both the restaurant and the community.

Jerry Bird purchased Spruce Corner in 1994 — the same restaurant where he met his former wife. Many employees and regular customers have been coming through its doors for two or three decades. Bird, who also owned Spruce Corner Catering, would cook dishes for the Goshen Council on Aging luncheon every second Tuesday of the month.

“It’s like a family — this is like my kitchen,” said Mike Feld of Goshen, a customer of 20 years sitting shoulder to shoulder with other regulars at the restaurant’s counter. “I’m here almost every breakfast and lunch. It’s part of my life. These guys are old friends, and it’s just part of the community.”

Feld described Bird as “old school to the extreme,” noting that he would pick up the phone and talk to people. “You know, nothing online,” he said. “That’s who he was.”

When the restaurant’s credit card machine repeatedly malfunctioned, Feld said a group of regulars helped pay to install internet service. “He needed it,” he said.

Jenny Baltz, who has worked as a waitress at Spruce Corner for more than a decade, struggled to hold back tears while remembering her boss. “I’m gonna cry if I talk about him,” she said.

Although she now lives in Vermont, Baltz continues driving to Goshen because of the restaurant’s family atmosphere.

“He was really a great guy — oh God — the best boss,” she said, describing Bird as a father figure.

“He would give you a hard time when making major life decisions that maybe shouldn’t have been made, and a bunch of advice,” she said. “He had a lot of knowledge.”

She said Bird treated customers the same way.

“He knew a whole bunch of people, and he’d sit down and talk for a while,” she said.

Debbie Skaling, who began waitressing at Spruce Corner shortly after it opened, said Bird was funny, a devoted father and the driving force behind the restaurant’s welcoming atmosphere.

She still remembers John Bird spending his childhood at the restaurant.

“He entertained himself outside. He was a good kid,” Skaling said.

Stephanie White, Bird’s partner of seven years, described him as “one of a kind.”

“The world is a lot dimmer without him here,” she said.

White said Bird was deeply committed to the community, including his work with the Shriners, and was always willing to help others through difficult times.

“I’m just hoping everyone remembers him for his kind heart,” she said. “He took care of everybody when they lost someone.”

Sorting through his office, White has found reminders of the thousands of weddings, funerals and other events Bird catered over the years.

“This has spread far and wide,” she said. “I’m getting calls from friends in New York and New Jersey.”

She believes keeping the restaurant open is important for the community as people mourn.

“I just think all the customers need a place to go right now,” White said. “People need a place to go and mourn and talk, and this is it. That’s what he did for other people.”

Director of the Council on Aging Kerry Normandin said that Jerry Bird was, “always there to help.”

Each month, Jerry Bird would cater the COA lunches, which draw about 40 people. During holiday meals, which featured either traditional Thanksgiving dishes or corned beef on St. Patrick’s Day, he’d have food ready for some 70 people.

Normandin described his creativity with food, noting that “he would prepare so much food that almost everybody got to take home leftovers.”

The COA would also just cover the cost of the food, not the labor. “It was a bargain,” said Normandin.

Select Board Chair Peri Hall said that Jerry Bird’s death has shocked the community and that he is missed. She said he had been a wonderful neighbor and a help to people new in town.

John Thomas of Worthington, a fellow Mason, called Bird “a great friend, a great brother.”

Tim Pease of Goshen, who said he was the restaurant’s first customer when it opened in 1994, remembered Bird as “just a good all-around guy.”

Frank Burnett became a regular after his wife died. Standing in the dining room last week, he pointed behind the counter to the spot where Bird had been working only days earlier.

“He was great,” Burnett said. “He loved the Red Sox. He had a likable personality.”

John Bird said his father always prioritized the people who walked through the door.

“He did what was right by the customers and the staff,” he said. “There was a point in time when he didn’t raise his menu prices for eight or 10 years because he was afraid that if you raise it by 5%, people would stop coming. He waited until he absolutely had to.”

The space has been a hub of community life, and many customers didn’t even need to place an order, he said.

“If you had to meet somebody and you couldn’t get a hold of them, you knew when they would be in here, and a lot of times he would have food on the grill before their order even came in because they would get the same thing every day.”

His father often joked that he was “married to the business.”

“He just always thought about everyone else — never himself,” said John Bird.

Jerry Bird was also engaged with the Hilltown community in a variety of ways. For more than 20 years, he was an active volunteer with the Cummington Fair and a founding member of the Goshen Highlanders snowmobile club. He was also active with the Burgy Bullets in Williamsburg, a board member for the Haydenville American Legion and a member of the Cummington Lions Club.