Robert Simmons, 98, of North Granby passed away peacefully on May 3. He leaves behind a legacy of community volunteerism and service in the U.S. Navy during WWII and the Korean War.
He and Vera King married in 1952 and raised three children—son Robert W. III, and daughters Joan Miglinas, and Nancy Woods. Bob worked for the Hartford Times, and as an executive with the Chamber of Commerce serving Danbury, New Haven and West Hartford.
He and Vera moved to Granby in 1987 where Bob set up a basement woodworking shop and spent hours making furniture, toys and wooden bowls. He learned to fly, and acquired a motorcycle on which he made a solo ten-week cross-country tour in his late 70s and continued to ride into his 90s. Many Granby organizations were recipients of his gifts of time.
In 1987 Bob pulled his first copy of the Drummer out of his mailbox, read the editor’s plea for volunteers, and responded — beginning a twenty-plus-year volunteer stint as advertising manager for the community paper. He built relationships with advertisers and hunted down every ad dollar he could find to keep the free, all-volunteer paper viable. He was successful. The paper celebrates 54 years of publication this year, and the organization and protocols he put in place continue to serve the paper well.
The board of directors of Citizens for a Better Granby and the editors and staff of the Granby Drummer share a sense of loss with and extend sympathy to Bob’s family.