Ocean Grove Voice - Your Local Newspaper

THE sight of flags flying at half mast on Ocean Grove Fire Station signaled the news that many in the community had feared would be coming.

Captain Bob Smith, 62, passed away in the caring hands of staff at Geelong Hospital on Saturday morning, just months after being diagnosed with an aggressive and inoperable brain tumor.

Acting captain John Wynn said that the news was broken when a general pager message was sent out to all staff flagging a meeting. The message needed no explanation.

“From my perspective I think Ocean Grove as a community was very fortunate that Bob chose to live in our town and become an integral part of our community for the last 20 years of his life,’ said John.

“And whilst his primary involvement was the CFA and the most profound part of his community involvement was the CFA, he equally was involved with things like Rotary and the Ocean Grove Cup as a judge.

“He was involved with most fundraisers, he was a regular person at the football, and he followed the local football team. He was well known at the bowling club and the golf club.

“And just from a purely Ocean Grove point of view he was a larger than life character in the town. And I use character in the most complimentary way.”

But Bob’s influence wasn’t just limited to this community. It was spread throughout the Bellarine Peninsula with his involvement as a Group Officer with the fire brigade and as Group Training Officer for the last three or four years. He worked out of Geelong for the CFA and his area covered right down to Port Campbell.

In his career with the CFA he worked and served as a volunteer in Grovedale, Ballarat, Mildura and Bendigo.

Bob had risen through the ranks of the volunteers with his training and gained a lot of experience in incident control management. John said that Bob brought this valuable experience back to the brigade.

In his 16 years as Ocean Grove captain he had overseen the professionalisation of the brigade.

As a result of the environment Bob engendered, a number of our Grove members have also assumed regional and district appointments.

“He was a very generous person with his time,’ said John. “He also had a very strict disciplinarian side. But he was also able to relate to 17 year olds as a friend, a real friend. He obviously looked on the CFA as a family to him.”

John said that the brigade extended its condolences to Bob’s brother Bruce and his family. Bruce is also a captain at a rural brigade near Ballarat.

Earlier this year Bob was awarded the Australian Fire Service Medal (AFSM) as part of the Australia Day honours in recognition of his 45-plus years of service to paid and voluntary fire service . This very rare award is the highest in the fire service.

Shortly after receiving the award Bob told the Ocean Grove Voice: “I was pretty humbled. And I’ll be honest when I received the letter asking me if I would accept it I thought very hard about it and then accepted it. And then after I accepted it I thought ‘am I accepting it for the right reasons?’ But I think it was explained to me that it’s more than me, it’s about the people that work here, it’s about the organisation, the award makes you feel good about that.”

John said: “The fact that he received it is recognition of his contribution to the community through CFA and also a source of very great personal pride that he accepted it and his fellow brigade members shared in that pride.”

Bob was also a very valued member of Ocean Grove Rotary.

Current Rotary president Noel Emselle said: “He will certainly be a loss to us. He was always reliable and active in some of the projects that we undertook.

“Sergeant in Arms last year and was still on the team. He was always good for a laugh and used to come up with some entertaining activities as a sergeant.

“A big loss, especially when taken so young.”

Cllr Jan Farrell said: “Bob was a very well respected identity in the community and will be sorely lost.”

Bob’s Funeral will be held at 1:30pm on Thursday 29th July at St Patricks Cathedral, 3 Lyons Street, Ballarat.  More details on the Ocean Grove Fire Brigade website: see www.oceangrovecfa.com.au.