As head baseball coach at Holliston High School and a hard-hitting first baseman and outfielder in the Boston Park League, Harvey Krupnick had to be quick on his feet – on and off the field.

“There have been a lot of days when I’ve hopped in the car after high school practice, grabbed a sandwich, ate in the car, and then got to the field in time to throw batting practice for Mass. Envelope,’’ he told the Globe in 1990, referring to his league team.

The league’s oldest player that season at 46, Mr. Krupnick hit a robust .392 against pitchers half his age. A nationally recognized hitting instructor, he also coached 39 seasons at Holliston, guiding the Panthers to the 1987 state Division 2 baseball title.

Mr. Krupnick, a Massachusetts Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame inductee and its former president and annual clinic coordinator, died of cancer May 26 in McCarthy Care Center in East Sandwich. He was 71 and lived in Hopkinton.

“I admired his dedication to kids, baseball, the coaches association, and most of all, to hitting. He lived and breathed it,’’ said Joe Leone, an association past president who formerly was head baseball coach at Concord-Carlisle Regional High.

Leone said that when he and Mr. Krupnick roomed together at national conventions, “Harvey would be up talking to me about hitting for at least an hour before we even had breakfast.’’

Mr. Krupnick, who was known to many as Coach K, established a popular hitting school in 1974, and had conducted batting clinics for the Bermuda national softball team at the request of its government. In 2001, he was Major League Baseball’s international envoy to South Africa.

A longtime guest instructor at the Bucky Dent Baseball School in Delray Beach, Fla., he was the 1992 recipient of the National High School Master Coach of the Year Award from the Easton Bat Co. and the publication Collegiate Baseball.

Mr. Krupnick, who kept lifetime personal batting statistics since his junior year at Athol High School, also produced videos on hitting. He stressed wrist action as the key to success.

“How you manipulate your wrists at the end of the swing, plus balance and positioning of your body, are the essentials of a good swing,’’ he told the Globe in 1990, “but it all comes back to the power generated by your hands and how they propel the bat.’’

Mr. Krupnick practiced what he preached. Once in 1990 during consecutive at-bats for Mass. Envelope over two games, he hit a three-run homer, a bases-loaded triple, another three-run homer, and a double.

“Harvey could hit in his sleep and he was a great teacher of the game,’’ recalled Walt Mortimer, the league’s secretary-treasurer.

A member of the Park League Hall of Fame, Mr. Krupnick maintained a rigorous fitness regimen for many years and played in adult leagues until last year.

At Athol High, from which he graduated in 1962, Mr. Krupnick was class vice president, played three sports, and was voted best athlete his senior year. At Adrian College in Michigan, he was a conference baseball MVP and team captain, graduating in 1966. He also is in the college’s Hall of Fame.

Mr. Krupnick played briefly in the Detroit Tigers system before receiving a master’s in physical education from Michigan State University. While there, he worked out with Mike Marshall, a Michigan State pitcher and future major leaguer and Cy Young Award winner.

“Mike was involved with doing a study on batting technique using a high-speed camera,’’ Mr. Krupnick wrote on his website. That collaboration, he said, was a major factor in his development as an instructor.

In 1968, Mr. Krupnick embarked upon his teaching and coaching career at Holliston High and his playing career in the Park League. He then served in the Army, playing and coaching on its All-Thailand softball team.

From 1971-73, he was junior varsity baseball coach at the high school, and from 1974-2006, he was head coach, compiling a 408-311 varsity record. His teams also won the Eastern Mass. title in 1990 and six Tri-Valley League championships.

Mr. Krupnick taught physical education and adaptive physical education at the school, where the baseball team’s MVP award will be named for him.

During his induction into the coaches’ association hall of fame in 2007, he wore his Holliston High jersey, No. 17, with its faded red Panthers insignia.

“His players really turned out for him and he received two standing ovations,’’ recalled one of Mr. Krupnick’s greatest players, Rich Cordani, tournament MVP for the 1987 team.

“I learned the approach to hitting from him, and that’s what I teach to my own students,’’ said Cordani, who owns the Baseball Unlimited Training Center in Waltham. “Coach K respected our individual talent, then helped us make the most of it.’’

Mr. Krupnick, who was divorced, leaves a daughter, Samantha, of Arlington, and a brother, Arthur, of Centerville. A service has been held.

In his will, Mr. Krupnick left a pair of pitching machines to Holliston High School and the Holliston Little League.

“That shows how much he cared about his community and his players, but I wasn’t surprised,’’ said Holliston High head baseball coach Joe Santos, a pitcher and outfielder at the high school from 2004-2007. “Coach K was always there for me, and when I called him and told him I was the new head coach last January, the excitement in his voice was something I’ll never forget.’’

Arthur Krupnick said his brother looked forward to annual gatherings of what they called the Krupnick Cousins Club – the 15 first cousins who live in Massachusetts, Florida, and California.

“Harvey hosted our first get-together at his home in Framingham and others at his lake home in Hopkinton, and the kids enjoyed swimming, boating, fishing, kayaking, and playing ball with Coach K,’’ Arthur recalled.

During Mr. Krupnick’s last days in hospice, former players brought him a 1987 championship plaque, a baseball, and a Holliston T-shirt.

Mr. Krupnick, who was buried in his baseball uniform, donned his first uniform when he was a 7-year-old Little Leaguer in Athol. Nine years later, he hit a grand slam homer in an All-Star Game at the Ted Williams Baseball Camp in Lakeville, where he washed dishes to help pay tuition.

As he rounded third base, “a guy sitting in his station wagon kept tooting his horn,’’ Mr. Krupnick recalled on his website.

The man at the wheel was the great Red Sox slugger himself, saluting Mr. Krupnick’s sweet swing.

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