‘If you can help, you should’
When Horsham people remember Robert ‘Bob’ Kirsopp, his orange Mini Moke or his mayoral service might come to mind.
However, a gaze through his life’s endeavours depicts decades of community service and companionship.
Former Horsham mayor Bob Kirsopp, a husband of 67 years to Mavis, father to Mandy and Glenn, died on February 3, aged 88.
Family and friends gathered yesterday for a funeral service to remember his life.
With Mavis by his side, Mr Kirsopp dedicated his life to an incalculable number of peoplefocused pursuits.
From the pair’s lawnmower repair and retail business in Horsham, to an after-school bicycle building program he ran in his backyard for disadvantaged primary-school children that caught the ear of Melbourne community activist Les Twentyman. Mr Kirsopp’s interest was ‘people’. His daughter, Mandy Kirsopp, said her father had an ‘obligation’ to help others, believing, ‘if you can, you should’.
“As a child, the family home was always busy with people dropping in, on evenings, or at weekends. Either to seek his counsel, or just to talk with Mum and Dad. There was a constant stream of people through the house and that is because there had been such a connected network of people who were touched by Bob and Mavis,” she said.
She said her father’s lung-cancer diagnosis, an initial terminal medical prediction, and his subsequent cancer recovery allowed him to offer support to people experiencing similar struggles. It was companionship, she said, that people often gladly accepted.
Mr Kirsopp served as Horsham mayor in 1975 and 1976, and was a Horsham councillor for nine years.
Mandy Kirsopp said with state and federal elections called during Mr Kirsopp’s mayoral tenure, he hosted about 300 civic functions — many as part of electoral campaigns across the region.
She said, however, he preferred to ‘not get bogged down’ in politics.
“He had equal care and concern for everyone — regardless of their position in life. He recognised the necessity of political ceremony, but he never thought a politician was more important than anyone else. Dad did a lot of civic things, many that were very public by nature, but so much of what he did for people was private and personal,” she said.
“Bob and Mavis were a unit and their community impact as a couple was testament to the influence they have both had with so many people across the years.”
Mr Kirsopp’s long list of pursuits also included a national-service stint with the 4th/19th Prince of Wales Light Horse company as a young man, several jobs across the construction sector, bus driving, goat breeding, historic-car restoration and hosting foreign-exchange students.
This was additional to his forays into social
“Bob and Mavis were a unit and their community impact as a couple was testament to the influence they have both had with so many people across the years.” – Mandy Kirsopp
work and elected office, among others. He was a former vice-president of Horsham Fishing Competition and former president of Horsham Neighbourhood Watch.
He spent his recent years as a handyman for his friend and Horsham businessman, Brian Murray.
Mavis Kirsopp said her husband was always ‘true’ to himself and rarely changed his mind once he had made it up. She said he was her ‘rock’. “He had a real sense of humour, even though he could be very matter of fact. But truly, he was a big kid underneath it all. He did not know how to say ‘no’ to anyone,” she said.
Mandy Kirsopp said despite her father’s popularity, family always remained the centre of his life.
“We never felt that he was absent from our lives, or more interested in grandstanding. We knew we were his life. But we also knew and understood he had an obligation to help others,” she said.
“The fact that everyone knew him as Bob or Bobby, rather than Robert, was a small symbol of his ability to have an individual connection with everyone.
“And how lucky we were to have had contact with him.”
Bob Kirsopp’s funeral was yesterday morning at St Andrew’s Uniting Church in Horsham.