NEW SCOTLAND — Jake Herzog III, a three-sport athlete in high school, loved to grow vegetables and ride his motorcycle.

“He could always find the good in people,” said his sister, Lynn Bragan. “He loved talking to strangers and finding out about them. He was very social.”

He died peacefully at home on Thursday, Feb. 25, 2021. He was 54. He had experienced health problems for several years, and his death was not COVID related.

Mr. Herzog grew up on his family’s farm on Bullock Road in New Scotland. His parents, Jacob and Arlene Herzog, together ran Petrochem Mechanical Services in Rensselaer.

“My great-grandparents owned the land first. My parents built the house we lived in,” said his sister. “We grew up with horses and pigs and cows. My father still makes hay and bales it and my brother would help with that. People looked forward to chatting with my brother when they came to pick up hay.”

In his youth, Mr. Herzog played Guilderland Pop Warner football and in high school, at Voorheesville, he played football, basketball, and baseball. “He always loved sports,” said his mother, who recalled driving him to a lot of sporting events.

“He was very happy and cheerful,” she went on. “He was the class clown in school. He had a good sense of humor.”

“For a time,” his family wrote in a tribute, “he also competed in the New England Junior Enduro motorcycle program and continued to enjoy motorcycling alone and with friends until his passing.”

He loved motorcycles from a young age. His family has a picture of him as a baby on a motorcycle with his father. His father, who is in his eighties, still rides his motorcycle and the two would compete in events together.

Enduro events are timed courses through the woods and Mr. Herzog, the father, would compete in the adult division while his son competed in the junior division.

Mr. Herzog graduated from Voorheesville’s Clayton A. Bouton High School in 1984, and attended Rochester Institute of Technology. He belonged to the fraternity Tau Kappa Epsilon, his sister said, and “partied a bit in college.”

His passion for photography had started with a club activity in high school, his mother said, and he pursued that in college. Mr. Herzog went on to work in commercial film-processing labs in Albany, and Norwalk, Connecticut.

“He loved doing that and then all the film stuff got taken over by digital,” his mother said.

Mr. Herzog returned home to New Scotland.

“One of his passions was sports, specifically the Miami Dolphins, which he enthusiastically followed through wins and losses,” his family wrote. “Spring and summer were his favorite seasons because he could mow the lawns with no shirt, help with haying, take the dogs for walks in the fields, and play golf.”

His favorite dog was Spencer, a Springer spaniel.

“He became a wizard in the family vegetable garden,” his family said, “annually nurturing the finest tomatoes, peppers, and more vegetables than the family could possibly eat.”

“He grew beautiful tomatoes and peppers, which I’d can,” said his mother. “He learned not to let zucchinis grow big.” 

Mr. Herzog also liked taking road trips and would often go on motorcycle jaunts with his friends. “I live in Verginia,” said his sister, “and he came down and visited me.”

She went on, “He always looked forward to seeing his nieces and nephews, and his cousins — all the kids in the family. He was always really good with the kids. It was that cheerful attitude.”

“My smiling, helpful, warm-hearted brother passed away the other day,” Ms. Bragan wrote in a tribute. “He will now be with his dogs, Spencer and Herman, and with our grandparents, aunts, and uncles ….

“I will always visualize him mowing the lawn shirtless, tending to the garden, lifting hay bales and listening to music … I’m sad not to see his silly, smiling eyes again.”

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Jacob H. Herzog III is survived by his parents, Jacob H. Herzog Jr. and Arlene (née Carr) Herzog; his brother, Edward Herzog, and his wife, Sarah; his sister, Lynn Bragan and her husband, Tom.

He is also survived by his niece, Elena Bragan; his nephew, Lucas Bragan; his aunts, Madelon Herzog and Mary Berkman and her husband, Scott; and his cousins Ken Miller and his wife, Patty, and Erick Miller and Julie Hervieux, Scott Herzog, Stephen Longtin and his wife, Lynn, Keith Longtin and his wife, Nalanie, Deborah Longtin, Kathleen Frisbee and her husband, Steve, Karen Umbrell and her husband, Steve, Ellen Zweig and her husband, Geoff, and Kristen Bankuti and her husband, Steve.

His uncle Scott Herzog died before him, as did his aunts, Patricia Longtin and Margaret Frederickson.

The family will hold a memorial service at a later date.

Memorial messages may be left at www.altamontenterprise.com/milestones.

Memorial contributions may be made to the New Scotland Presbyterian Church, 2010 New Scotland Rd., Slingerlands, NY, 12159.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer