Imagine being an ice hockey goaltender and having eight pucks painted in different colors fired at you while you call out the colors. Or having a series of boards in front of your net placed to deflect shots at different angles, then facing pucks shot from 5 feet away through a cloth-covered frame.

Those practice drills — designed to help netminders constantly keep their eyes on the puck — were created by Bob Saunders while he was Randolph High School’s goaltending coach in the late 1960s and early ’70s.

“Bob was a brilliant man with a scientific and geometric approach to hockey, and I liked him the moment I met him,’’ said Mike Addesa, who spent two decades as a hockey coach at Randolph High, the College of the Holy Cross, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with Mr. Saunders as his associate head coach.

Mr. Saunders, who also had been an assistant coach at Weymouth South High School, the University of Massachusetts Boston, and Northeastern University, died of brain cancer Nov. 3 in the Brockton VA Medical Center’s hospice unit. He was 84 and had lived in Randolph since 1956.

A retired manager in the rate research department at the former Boston Edison Co., Mr. Saunders had been, through last season, Northeastern hockey’s longtime volunteer administrative assistant for external affairs.

“We had many late-night conversations, and I learned a lot from his unique perspective of the game,’’ Northeastern head hockey coach Jim Madigan said. “Bob was a confidante both personally and professionally, and he was loyal — someone players and coaches could trust.’’

Jack Grinold, athletic director emeritus at Northeastern, said Mr. Saunders “relished his wonderful lifetime in hockey. He was a Renaissance man and a caring friend.’’

A founder of the Randolph youth hockey program, Mr. Saunders received the American Hockey Coaches Association’s Terry Flanagan Award in 1998 for his work as an assistant coach. The Friends of Northeastern Hockey presented him the Fernie Flaman Award in 2001 for dedication and commitment.

Sixteen years after Addesa first met Mr. Saunders on a Randolph playground, they celebrated together when RPI won the 1985 NCAA Division 1 national championship.

“Bob’s full-time job at Edison meant that sometimes he’d fly to wherever we’d be playing, and our RPI team bus would pick him up at the airport,’’ ­Addesa said. “Bob would make sure he brought packs of gum with the players’ favorite flavors.’’

He added that in the era when the Rubik’s Cube was popular, “Bob would figure it out in three minutes, and we had some terrific students on our teams who couldn’t come close to doing it that quickly. Yet he was one of the most humble people I’ve ever met.’’

Robert D. Saunders grew up in East Boston, a son of Alfred Saunders and the former Alice Irvin. He learned to skate at Bird Island Flats and played in amateur and adult leagues, usually in the net.

Mr. Saunders, who served in the Army Reserve, graduated from Huntington Prep and enrolled at Northeastern, working his way through college over a 10-year period while starting his career at Boston Edison. He graduated in 1961 with a bachelor’s degree in business administration.

In 1953, he married ­Geraldine McTernan and they later moved to Randolph, where Mr. Saunders also coached Little League and Babe Ruth League baseball.

“Boston Edison put my brother, Daniel, and myself through college, but while that was dad’s livelihood, hockey was his passion,’’ said his daughter, Geralyn of Randolph. “He had season tickets for the Bruins during the Bobby Orr and Phil Esposito years, and my brother would go on Christmas and I would go on Thanksgiving.’’

Geralyn, who was once a figure skater, said her father was also a much-sought-after partner during family games of Trivial Pursuit.

Mr. Saunders had a knack of relating to young people, said his son, Daniel of Randolph, who also played hockey and, on his 16th birthday, scored a game-winning goal in overtime for Randolph High in the 1970 state tournament.

“He didn’t like it when you were just sitting around. He always kept us busy,’’ Daniel said. “Family came first, then our education, then sports.’’

Geraldine, who often accompanied her husband on road trips, made sure the family had a presence at games when Daniel played hockey at the Choate Rosemary Hall School in Wallingford, Conn.

“Mom was a real fan,’’ Daniel said. She would take the train to attend Sunday afternoon games, he recalled, and afterward “we’d have dinner together, then she’d return home.’’

After coaching at Holy Cross, Mr. Saunders spent 10 seasons at RPI, and in 1989 was hired as Northeastern’s goalie coach. From 1993 to ’96, he was an assistant coach for Paul Cannata at UMass-Boston.

“Bob was the first person to tell me about the Internet, and he could fix just about any computer problem, but there was another side to him as a shoulder to lean on for our players,’’ said Cannata, who is now Milton Academy’s hockey coach. “He came to the rink early and stayed late and he enjoyed a joke, especially when things were tough.’’

After UMass-Boston, which had not won a game, lost to undefeated Middlebury, Cannata and Mr. Saunders turned in for the night in their motel room. “Out of the darkness, I hear Bob saying, ‘Neither team’s record was blemished this evening,’ ’’ Cannata recalled.

A service has been held for Mr. Saunders, who in addition to his wife and two children leaves three grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

In September, Madigan and Cannata visited Mr. Saunders at his home. Madigan brought Northeastern’s 2015-2016 Hockey East Conference championship ring, which was inscribed with Mr. Saunders’ name.

“We knew then that we would not see Bob back at Matthews Arena, and it was an emotional moment,’’ Madigan recalled. “He told us that it meant a lot to him and was as special as winning the national championship at RPI.’’

Addesa, now a Vancouver Canucks scout, said Mr. Saunders was a calming influence, “always there to grab my coattails or just to talk the morning after a game. He had so many gifts he wanted to share with so many people, especially young people, and he was like a brother to me.’’

Marvin Pave can be reached at marvin.pave@rcn.com.