BARRHEAD - The Town of Barrhead is mourning after learning that a longtime resident, businessperson, and two-term councillor, Bob Lee, has passed away on Feb. 10 at 87 years old.
Born in Mellowdale, Lee, who spent his entire life in the Barrhead area, was elected to council in 1983 and was re-elected in 1986. In addition to serving on town council, Lee served several years on the Barrhead Hospital board.
William Stuchbury, who is one of the two surviving members of the council during Lee's tenure as councillor and the sole member still living in the community, remembers Lee as a hard-working councillor, businessman, who was always looking for ways to give back to the community.
"He never missed a council meeting and was always on time," he said.
Stutchbury said that the added charge for garbage pickup as part of residents' monthly water bills was one of the more contentious projects or issues where Lee played a significant role during his terms on council.
"Bob was on the committee that recommended we start charging a fee for garbage collection. That is why the town, to this day, still has its own garbage collection unit, our own landfill [with the County of Barrhead] and have another piece of land to move to when the present one needs to be decommissioned," he said, adding not all communities are as fortunate. "A lot of towns have to hire their garbage collection out, and there are a lot of communities our size that don't have landfills. By having these things, we've saved the taxpayers a lot of money over the years, and Bob was a big part of that."
In addition to being on council, the hospital board, and a successful business owner, Stuchbury said Lee was an excellent family man who was respected and well-liked in the community and was always looking for ways to help the community, adding one of the ways he did that is through his long affiliation with the Kinsmen Club.
He added that Lee was not only an active part in helping raise money for the construction and covering of the original swimming pool and ice arena but also physically helped in their construction, helping to poor the cement floor after the installation of the refrigeration pipes at the ice arena and clean the walls of the swimming pool after the water was pumped out for the season.
Bill Lane, a longtime friend whose family's business, Lane Drug Store and later, a restaurant, was adjacent to Lee's flower and gift shop for several years.
"He was just a great guy, a good councillor, and a community-type person. He was also an excellent businessperson," he said.
Lane noted that when Lee first opened his shop it was on the north side of Main Street.
However, he said it did not take long for Lee to realize that the south side of the street, at the time, was much busier and relocated when a vacancy beside his family's business became available.
"Bob was also an avid swimmer," he said, adding the pair had many conversations at the swimming pool, especially when Lane was recuperating following his hip surgery, and he would walk the lazy river.
In an interview with the Barrhead Leader in 2013, Lee credits Lane, who in his youth was a lifeguard, with coaching him for the Alberta 55 Plus games at the age of 77.
"I'm not sure I would go as far to say I coached him," Lane said. "But I would give him tips on strokes and things that had worked for me."
Lane also remembers that his friend was a talented artist who set up his own studio in a spare bedroom in his basement.
"The whole basement was full of beautiful paintings," he said, adding one of his most treasured possessions is a painting of a lighthouse on a lake that Lee gave him as a gift.
Art was something Lee picked up relatively late in his life.
In another interview with the Leader in November 2021, shortly before holding his first show at the Barrhead Art Club, he said although his father was a talented carver and painter, he never drew or painted.
That is until he accompanied his late wife to an appointment in Morinville about a dozen years earlier. While waiting for her, he saw a beautiful church nearby and considered drawing it.
"And so I did," he said.
Lee added he got the art bug a couple of years later when he recreated a "rather ornate napkin" that he saw in a restaurant he and his wife visited in Stettler while they were visiting their son.
But the thing Lane will remember the most about his friend was his laugh.
"I can still hear him laughing, and I am sure he is laughing all the way up to heaven," he said.
At the Feb. 13 Town of Barrhead council meeting, councillors observed a moment of silence in honour of Lee's service to his fellow citizens.
"The community is a better place because of him," said Mayor Dave McKenzie.
The municipality also lowered its flags upon the announcement of Lee's death until after his funeral on Feb. 20 at Bethel Pentecostal Church at 1 p.m. Donations can be made in Lee's honour to the Barrhead Healthcare Centre, the Barrhead United Church or the Barrhead Art Club.
