Robert Douglas Melville Husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, dog-lover, sailor, paddler, handyman, maple syrup producer, engineer, mentor, international business executive, proud Canadian. On the 25th of January, in his 80th year, Bob passed on peacefully at his home by the lake surrounded by his loving wife and family. His 11 years living with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) and other complications came to a comfortable end. The family is very grateful to Dr. Steven Walker, the staff of Saint Elizabeth Health Care, the Perth Hospital, and the South East CCAC for all they did to support and comfort Bob and the family and, in the final days, to ease his passing. Bob was a remarkable man who lived a life that generated many interesting and funny stories told around many dinner tables. Bob spent his youth in Montreal where he grew up the son of Douglas Melville and Millicent Hudson and younger brother to sister Doreen. After Millicent’s untimely passing during Bob’s youth, Aino (Tammerik) became his father’s second wife, and as his step-mom was a life-long friend and support for Bob. Montreal’s neighborhood of Notre Dame de Grace with its parks and hockey rinks, Willingdon Public School, and West Hill High School were his childhood world. After a brief and formative experience in the workforce doing a variety of jobs in his late teens and early 20s, Bob returned to school with renewed perspective and went on to study mechanical engineering at Sir George Williams University and McGill University in Montreal before embarking on his professional career. After university, Bob’s own world perspective expanded tremendously when his interest in international business set him on an exciting course that would define his career. He joined the Canadian subsidiary of the Swedish industrial engineering firm Svenska Fläktfabriken, S.F. Products Canada Ltd. The company was later renamed Fläkt Canada. After a couple of years, he left to pursue a Master of Business Administration degree at McGill University. Upon completion of his MBA, Bob returned to Fläkt and, through a combination of business sense, marketing acumen and work ethic, quickly rose to lead the company as CEO while in his 30s and stayed with the global Fläkt organization for 34 years until his retirement. Bob epitomized the reserved, easy-going, good natured and polite Canadian who could adapt easily to the cultural and social diversity of different markets and business practices around the world. His career gave him the welcomed opportunity to travel throughout Canada and the world on business, but also as an informal ambassador of Canada and Canadian business culture. Fläkt was his other family: the employees in Canada as well as the Fläkt colleagues in Sweden and many other countries around the world. Bob’s integrity, leadership style and principled approach to business created an environment that had many employees and colleagues feel a valued part of his extended family. He mentored many young professionals who benefitted from his wisdom and generosity. Throughout his demanding career, Bob was mindful of what mattered most to him, his own family. It was at Sir George that he met his first wife Joyce (Gunn), who was his life partner for 30 years. Bob and Joyce started a large family together and created a new world filled with wonderful experiences for their four children (Doug, Sue, Dave, and John) in Montreal and at the family cottage on Owl’s Head in Quebec’s Eastern Townships which was shared with his sister Doreen’s family (husband Fred and their children Nancy and Barbara). Family winters for this extended family were filled with skiing and the summers with beach, sailing, canoeing and kayaking. The Melville family moved to Ottawa in 1978 when Fläkt moved its Head Office. The family embraced their new life in the Nation’s Capital where they would remain for many years. Summers were spent sailing on the Ottawa River and winters skiing in Quebec. When Bob’s world was overturned by Joyce’s death in 1991, it was not long before that void in his life, and the family’s, was filled, his boat righted and set upon a new course. Bob received the gift of another loving wife and more additions to the family when he married Christine (Curtis) in 1994 and welcomed her and her daughters, Wendy and Lynda, to Canada and into the Melville family. They started a new life together that took them from Ottawa to settle in a beautiful home in the forest on the shore of Otty Lake near Perth, Ontario. This home would become the welcoming meeting place for the extended family, friends and neighbours who came to enjoy the peace and beauty of the lake, the smell and creatures of the woods, and the seasonal making of maple syrup in the sugar shack using traditional methods. When not hosting their many children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, Bob and Christine cared for their new children, the wonderful service dogs who came into their care to experience joy and rest after a long busy life of devoted service to others, and the families of white-tailed deer that came by early each morning to partake of their hospitality. They also formed lasting bonds of friendship with many in the Otty Lake community that they loved so much. Bob leaves behind and will be cherished and missed by: his loving wife Christine; his children - Doug (Gailina), Sue (Brian), Dave (Ellen), John, Wendy and Lynda (Mick); his 16 grandchildren - Kaelan, Kyleigh, Kiera, Kendra, Laura (Andrew), James, Ben, Pat, Liam, Rihanna, Alyssa, Stewart, Connor, Rebecca, Charlotte and Abby; and his 2 great-grandchildren - Lyla and Hannah. No surprise to those that knew him, Bob used his remaining strength during his last days thinking of others, sharing his kindness of spirit with his family and friends so that their grief at his passing could be comforted. A celebration of Bob’s remarkable life will be held sometime in the spring. Details will be provided on the website of Blair & Son, Funeral Directors in Perth, Ontario at http://www.blairandson.com. Those wishing to contact the family or send messages of condolence may do so through the website leaving their contact information. In lieu of flowers, donations will be gratefully accepted in Bob’s memory by Canadian Guide Dogs for the Blind at www.guidedogs.ca or 613-692-7777.