John Burdinat advised:
Bob Heron passed away on 23rd December after a long period of complex illnesses.
He had prostate cancer over 10 years ago, metastasis melanoma (spelling?) on chest, lots of radiation treatment, CIDP in the legs, a couple of strokes, bladder stones and was in great pain in his legs and feet, unable to walk unassisted.
He eventually succumbed to the cancers after having an early Christmas dinner with wife Glennis and the children and grandchildren at Hervey Bay where they lived for the past few years.
Bob’s daughter Nicky circulated the funeral notices but possibly missed advising some of Bob’s friends as it appears OTC Vets were not informed.
I spoke with Glennis this morning and she was quite surprised that a lot of Bob’s friends had not been in contact, now she knows why.
Glennis’s phone number is 0437757751 if people want to pass on their condolences.
Scattering of ashes notice.
Bob is now in his favourite fishing spots on the Clarence river.
4 Comments
Very sorry to hear the sad news.
I only got to know Bob Heron and wife Bea in his latter career after his Pacific stint. It was late 1993 in Almaty (Kazakhstan) and Bob ran the office in town whilst us engineers were building the Std-A earth station.
During one weekend, we skiied up at Medeo (Chimbulak) where I had a fall and dislocated my shoulder, high up on the slopes.
I remember Bob coming up to help me off the slopes.(maybe 2km up) and finding the local doctor to pop my shoulder back in place.
I got to know him better during the project and he was a good man and I remember he and Bea were two peas in a pod.
Thanks for keeping us all up to date!
cheers,
Kevin Lee
I worked with Bob in Ceduna SES way back when, after he joined us from the Telecom Ranks.
Bloody nice bloke if I have to say. Got on with everyone, fitted straight into the “small town politics” of Ceduna, and picked up the satcoms technology really quickly.
He really fitted in well both at work and within the Ceduna community.
I left Ceduna SES circa 1982, and transferred to Cairns CS, before transferring back to Sydney SES during the building works phase.
Last time I saw Bob – (I suspect in my first few years at Sydney SES (Oxford Falls)) – he was living at Cannonvale, – having transferred back into Telecom. He was working at the Cannonvale (Telecom) Exchange at the time.
At the time my parents were also living in Cannonvale, – only a few streets away from Bob’s place, and I caught up with him briefly on one of many trips to Cannonvale to visit my parents.
Greatly saddened if he has indeed passed on.
The world would be a better place if we had a lot more of the ilk of Bob Heron.
Best Regards
Tony Fisher
Greg Martyn found the attached story in the Oct 1995 Transit magazine.
Hard to accept the news of Bob’s death as Bob and Bee were our next door neighbours for 4 and a bit years on Guam.
Both Bob and Bee and Jan and self were members of the Mariana Yacht club and we both raced competitively in the Hobie fleet.
I am extremely certain that Bob and Bee were selected as Jan and I were selected on the first occasion 1978???? (Only two crews were given the opportunity to participate in the Hobie world sailing event), to attend the world event at Padre Island, Texas.
We both selected based on our results in the Hobie fleet to represent the island at the Hobie worlds. Both Bob and I had children and in Bob’s case, his two were much younger than Jan and I three children.
The end result was the same, even though our partners were our crew member and contributed to our success in racing, they couldn’t accompany us to the worlds. Someone had to stay home and look after our kids.
In my case I was selected to represent the island on two occasions, the first event was held as stated on Padre Island in Texas, down on the gulf. The second event (in 1980 I think or there abouts) was held on the Virgin Island down in the Caribbean.
I can’t remember for sure what arrangement Bob put in place when we were selected to go to Padre Isl, in my case I selected a fellow sailor in the club to be my crew member. Unfortunately when you have sailed with someone like your wife, partner you become very proficient as a team. You can’t replicate this with someone that you have not sailed with as a team member, except for a week or two before flying out from the island. The end result for me was we didn’t achieve a good result.
I honestly don’t know what Bob achieved at Padre Isl and I don’t think he participated in the selection for the Virgin Island. I could be wrong, it is many years ago.
He and Bee were great people, great to have as neighbours and were great people as ambassadors representing Australia, the Australian Cable station at Tumon in USA Guam.
We are so sorry to hear of his death.
Regards
John Eades