WESTFIELD — Vehicles filled almost every parking spot at Shaker Farms Country Club on Saturday as family members, friends and coworkers gathered to celebrate the life of Matthew P. Nedorostek.

Nedorostek, 65, died on Jan. 24 after falling into a sand-filled silo at a worksite in Greenfield that Chicopee Concrete Service uses to mix dry ingredients with cement. His body was recovered after a nearly eight-hour rescue and recovery effort by more than 50 police and firefighters.

The country club’s doors opened at 11 a.m., and a line of visitors waiting to express their condolences to the family trailed to the entrance thereafter. A prayer service began an hour later.

According to his obituary, Nedorostek worked for Chicopee Concrete Service for 34 years. Southwick resident Glenn Fuller, 73, joined the company in 2007 and stayed until 2019. He remembered his boss as a “gentle giant.”

“He wouldn’t have you do anything he wouldn’t do,” Fuller said of Nedorostek. Eyes on the crowd around him at the country club, he added, “Everybody liked him, our customers liked him. … He was a leader.”

Fuller’s son, also named Glenn Fuller and nicknamed “Junior” during his 12 years on the job with Nedorostek, agreed with his father. After describing Nedorostek’s “monotone” voice, he said, “He didn’t yell or scream. He would just talk to you.”

Chicopee Concrete Service was Springfield resident Richard Scott’s first job when he started in 1992. According to Scott, 56, patience and humility grounded Nedorostek’s approach. When Nedorostek taught him the ins and outs of running a water truck, only for Scott to damage it, “He didn’t yell at me or anything,” he recalled with a laugh.

Scott said reuniting with past coworkers to remember their boss “still shows love.”

According to many friends of Nedorostek, his kindness emanated not only from his leadership, but his presence, a constant of his character.

“They’d do anything for you,” explained 75-year-old Westfield native Sue O’Brien, a longtime friend of Nedorostek and his wife Kim.

According to friend Debbie Milczarski, Nedorostek once helped her with a broken shower despite his lack of plumbing experience. Through giggles, Milczarski, a Westfield resident, described water splattering across the bathroom before the two eventually found the culprit: a toothbrush stuck in the drain.

“He saw the humor in everything,” Wende Cooper, 64, chimed in. “Kind is the perfect word to describe him.”

Janet Keener, a cousin of Nedorostek from Canton, Connecticut, and Mark Reynolds, Nedorostek’s best friend since elementary school, said this kindness started at a young age. Nedorostek grew up in Burlington, Connecticut, but lived most of his life in Westfield, his obituary states.

“He’s the best, always there for you,” Reynolds, 65, said, nodding.

“I don’t think I ever saw him angry,” Keener remembered. “He just smiled through everything.”

In addition to his wife Kim, the obituary states Nedorostek is survived by his brother, Mark, and Mark’s wife, Lorna; his sister, Maggie, and her husband, Paul; his brother, Shawn; and Kim’s family, including her parents Britt and Terry, siblings Kent, Christine and Charlie, and their respective families, along with many nieces and nephews.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Nedorostek’s favorite charities: Wounded Warrior Project, P.O. Box 758516, Topeka, KS 66675-8516, and Springfield Rescue Mission, P.O. Box 9045, Springfield, MA 01102.