4 Friday, May 13, 2022brooklintowncrier.com Deputy Fire Chief Bob Marshall By Jennifer Hudgins During his summer holidays, 17- year old Bob Marshall helped the custodian sand and varnish the Brooklin Continuation School's wood floors. This involved heating the varnish so it would spread properly. However, while in the heating process, the tin of varnish caught fire. Without hesitation, Bob carried the burning tin outside. But when he opened the door, wind blew the flames onto his face, neck, chin and one ear. He spent approximately a month in the Oshawa Hospital recovering from severe burns. Yet in spite of the accident and having saved the school from being destroyed by fire, he went on to become one of Brooklin's full time firefighters. First job Robert Merle Marshall was born on December 22, 1935, to Irwin and Ursula Marshall, in Fern Glen, Ontario. The family of six moved to Toronto when he was four and three years later they made the final move to Brooklin. At the age of 14, Bob worked at General Motors for a couple of summers on the kids line and, when not in school, he kept himself occupied taking on odd jobs. In high school, his class was bused to Whitby to take shop classes and it was then that he met his future wife, Shirley Brinning. After their marriage in 1954, they bought a house at 33 Duke Street where they raised two sons, Rob and Dan. Bob stopped his formal education at grade 10 to work full time on the GM line. After eight years he decided to try driving a truck for McBrien Transport. Later, he took over the Mitchell men's clothing business on Roebuck Street and changed its name to Marshall's. While the business operated, he served as the Brooklin Redmen lacrosse team treasurer, providing it and other local teams with their uniforms. After the store was vandalized and the stock ruined, Bob closed the business to look for work elsewhere. Volunteering It was common for local men of Bob's generation to volunteer as firemen for the Town of Whitby and he was happy to be one of them. As a result of an 1857 Whitby Township by-law, fire brigades were to only be made up of volunteer firefighters. It wasn't until 1969 that the Town hired its first full time employee. A year later, five other full time firefighters were hired, ending 120 years of volunteer service. Bob had joined the Whitby Fire department as a volunteer fireman on March 10, 1967. When formally hired full time on April 19, 1971, he found his true calling. He worked out of fire station number 1 at 6 Vipond Road. Every year, Bob attended week-long training courses in Bracebridge while weekends would find him at the Oshawa airport attending various skill building sessions. In 1995, as Deputy Chief, he was placed in charge of overseeing the building of Fire Station 5 (Headquarters) at 111 McKinney Drive. On June 6, 1991, Whitby hosted a ceremony for Bob and other firemen at Heydenshore. They were each awarded the Governor General Of Canada Fire Services Exemplary Service Medal to commemorate their 25 years of service. He retired on December 31, 1995, and, after a brief illness, passed away on July 12, 2021. Was this inevitable? Brooklin's lower east side has but two entry and exit points: St. Thomas St. and Anderson Rd. Thus, one could say this section of Brooklin is somewhat virtually gated, an enclave if you will, a burro, a wee bit of a hood. It's part of what makes the short, winding streets charming and the area lovely to live in. Till you need to get in or out. I've written before about the dangers of Winchester, a regional catastrophe the region doesn't seem to be in a hurry to address. To wit, a recent, probably inevitable collision at the junction of St. Thomas, Winchester, and Queen. It's likely not possible to determine exactly who was at fault without the police report, which they wouldn't divulge anyway. There were allegedly minor injuries in one vehicle, according to an off-duty paramedic who ran from his table at MichaelKelly's and burst open a window to help one occupant get out, cutting up his arm in the attempt. He said that - again, allegedly - one van tried to turn left from St. Thomas onto Winchester. The rest is history. Full disclosure: I live on St. Thomas. Many residents here, including me, have pretty much given up trying to make that same turn. So we turn right - if someone will take the extra two seconds to let us in - instead then trying to turn from Winchester and onto Duke. From there, it's either proceed north to Cassels or pull a u-turn into the Precision Auto lot and try a rightie back onto Winchester. The convoluted exercise to enable a change of direction is much worse than inconvenient; having to execute this stunt is ridiculous. Alternately, head over to Anderson, turn left and up to the stop light at Winchester. In other words, go east and north to go west. Those coming from Queen and hoping to make a left onto Winchester face the same life-threatening turns as those from St. Thomas. The St. Thomas/Winchester/ Queen junction is made worse by the fact that the north/south roads are offset. Add in the "sidewalks" on both sides of Winchester, which are really elevated shoulders impatient drivers use to swerve around those who dare to want to turn, and you have a disaster waiting to happen. Walk along those stretches during peak traffic times at your peril. I'm told the region is soon to address the issues. I've been told that for the nearly six years I've lived here. An obvious simple and cheap solution that probably flies in the face of clever traffic engineers and statistics is to plunk two stop signs on Winchester, one at St. Thomas and one on Queen till the proper long term solution is constructed, as is the plan. Though isn't it always about the plan? Or, in the words of former heavyweight champ Mike Tyson, "Everyone has a plan till they get punched in the mouth." The drivers of those minivans might know about that. Less than half the picture by Richard Bercuson Minivans are towed away from the accident location on Winchester Rd.