Aged 83 years, Mr Brooker passed away on Sunday, April 12. A Service of Thanksgiving was conducted at a packed St Cuthbert’s Anglican Church Yarrawonga on April 24.
A fire truck led the hearse from the church to the Mulwala Lawn Cemetery where a fire brigade guard of honour formed to salute Bob.
Robert Leslie Brooker, known as Rob, Bob, Bobsie, Dad and Pa, was born at Temora, NSW on October 14, 1941, the second child of Les and Dolly Brooker.
Three brothers followed him; John, Alan and Noel. Bob also had an older sister Shirley, who passed away last year.
Bob attended Culcairn Central School and left school at 15 to work in the Culcairn Post Office before moving to Wagga Post Office.
He attended Melbourne postal clerk school, coming to Wangaratta and working all over North East Victoria.
Bob met his future wife Glenda when he came to work at the Yarrawonga Post Office.
They married in January of 1966 and moved to Mulwala in 1968 for the arrival of Katrina.
Their son Lee arrived in 1971.
Bob had five grandchildren; Jaymee, Cory, Rhys, Cain and Shari and three great grandchildren; Theo, Fletcher and Wren, with a set of twins on the way.
Shari delivered his eulogy and told how he was the postie in Mulwala, then eventually the postal manager until the post office became privatised in 1994.
“Bob retired for two weeks, became bored and worked at the Ampol Service Station part time,” Shari said.
“He then moved on to the Mulwala factory as burning ground operator.”
In 2001 Bob was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia and spent nine months in Melbourne following a stem cell transplant from his brother Alan.
He was able to come home and eventually go back to work.
“He retired in 2007 and four days later suffered a stroke,” Shari said.
“Bob played a lot of sport; golf, cricket, table tennis and squash and was captain of the NSW fire brigade in Mulwala from 1983 to 2007.”
Growing up, both Katrina and Lee had long hair, and Bob would plait their hair before school.
When the grandkids stayed over they would ask “can we have for pancakes for breakfast Nan but we want Pa to make them”.
Shari told how Pa always woke everyone up with the ABC news on the radio as loud as possible before the sun was up, always advising they were wasting half the day away if they weren’t up by 7am.
“Bob looked forward to the great grandkids coming each week and knew all the kids’ shows.
“Sadly, he won’t get to meet the twins due later this year, but he knew they were coming,” Shari said.
The family wishes to thank Dr Tania Jones for her love and care of Bob over the last 24 years and “the beautiful nursing staff at Yarrawonga Health”.
Along with Bob, Vin Slattery was a founding member of Mulwala Fire and Rescue and was the brigade’s deputy captain to inaugural captain Bob, and took over as captain for 10 years.
“He did a great job,” Mr Slattery said.
“His experience as a postal manager made for a good introduction with all the paper aspects; it put him in good stead for the job.”
Mulwala’s Paul Talbot OAM often served as the town’s sole councillor on Corowa Shire Council.
“I wanted Bob as a councillor and talked him into it, to help me,” Mr Talbot said.
“I asked the men to vote for me and the women to vote for Bob; it was effective.
“Bob did a good job for Mulwala. He was a very personal friend of mine.”
Bob was a well-respected and valued member of Yarrawonga Lodge of St David according to Past Master John Nicholson.
“Bob served in all the positions including Past Master in his 30 years,” Mr Nicholson said.
Mulwala Progress Association president Robert (Possum) Purtle OAM said Bob was always helpful.
He described Bob and Glenda as a big part of Mulwala.
“Bob was a genuine sort of bloke, a quiet achiever.”
