Bob was taken from us suddenly in the early summer of last year by Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, at the age of 69.

Four years earlier, his son, Matt, died, aged 32. Bob reached for support at that time from The Compassionate Friends [TCF] charity – www.tcf.org.uk

TCF is staffed mainly by people who have experienced close family bereavement themselves, working on a voluntary basis.

Bob very soon established a rapport with the people whom he met. When after a while he was asked if he would be ready to take his place ‘in the grief chain’, he readily did so, and went on to become a volunteer.

Those of us who worked with Bob – he spent his whole working life with a large civil engineering contractor, BAMNuttall – will not be surprised by that willingness.

In his latter days, and as a Director, he had responsibility for Health and Safety, and he moved that important function on substantially, going beyond the statutory requirements to encourage all employees to look out for others in addition to themselves.

Furthermore, he promoted the wellbeing of everybody, by initiating mentoring and making it a rewarding process for both the mentee and the mentor.

Retirement was hardly the right word for Bob, as he continued to work with the business on mentoring. In doing so, he began to make use of the experience of retirees. And that initiative moved him to work to achieve a formal body, Stay Connected, which provides all retirees with information about the business, and opportunities to meet both virtually and physically.

One such social group meets for walks centred on the south central counties. Bob joined us on occasions and we are now seeking to honour the man we knew so well and admired so much by
walking the Thames Path.

Why that choice?

Well, Bob lived in Oxfordshire not far from our start in Abingdon, and for a long time he led a division of the business from West Drayton, which over the years carried out various works along our route, right through to the Thames Barrier at Woolwich.

Thus we can feel close to him as we walk.