'The city will miss him': Former councillor Rob Warman mourned

Former Barrie councillor Rob Warman died Saturday at age 91.

Warman died of cancer at Hospice Simcoe, passing away peacefully with his wife, Alice, and their children at his side.

“I was married to Rob for 60 years. We spent 50 of those years building a wonderful life for us and our children in Barrie,” said Alice Warman. “Rob threw himself head first into trying to help make the community a better place whether that was on city council or through the legion, Rotary or the many other service clubs he belonged to.

“We were a military family and Rob loved his work with the Canadian Forces whether in the Military Police or later as honorary colonel to 16 Wing at Base Borden. His legacy is the way he lived," she added. 

Janice Laking, who was Barrie's mayor from 1988 to 2000, noted the leadership skills of Warman, who served for more than two decades on city council.

“Rob always wanted to ‘be in charge’,” she said. “So although his chair is empty, somewhere he is directing things.”

Barry Ward, the city’s deputy-mayor, said Warman’s last term on council coincided with his first term.

“I already knew him from my time as a city hall reporter for The Barrie Examiner and got to know him even better after he was re-elected back to city council in a 2001 Ward 3 byelection to replace Brian Norton, who had resigned to become a justice of the peace,” Ward said.

“Rob was always friendly. I can’t remember him ever greeting me with anything but a smile. He always asked about how my family was doing, not because it was the polite thing to do but because he was interested," Ward added. 

The Ward 4 councillor noted Warman’s role in the beginning and progress of what is now Lake Simcoe Regional Airport.

“When Rob got behind a project, it got done. That was certainly the case with the airport,” Ward said. “Every idea needs a champion to see it through and that was Rob with the airport. He recognized that, from an economic and transportation point of view, an airport is as important to a community today as the railway would have been in the 1800s. There were a lot of obstacles in his way but he helped get it done.

“Perhaps the most impressive thing about Rob is that he never stopped contributing to his city. After leaving city council, he was involved in Victoria Village. He was also very involved in the city’s international relations committee and was instrumental in many projects, including the painting of Sir Robert Barrie’s ship, a copy of which has found its way into many schools, and the cabinet honouring Sir Robert Barrie on the second floor of City Hall. That involvement continued until the months before his passing,” Ward said. “The city will miss him.”

One of Warman’s passions was Barrie’s twinning with the German city of Zweibrucken.

His friend Jean-Maurice Pigeon said in early 1994 Laking had asked her city council if anyone was familiar with Zweibrucken, which had been home to a Royal Canadian Air Force station between 1953 and 1969. Barrie was exploring the merits and possibility of twinning with the German city.

“A sitting alderman (councillor), Rob Warman volunteered that he had been stationed in Zweibrucken with the Royal Canadian Air Force and had been one of the members of the rear party that handed the station over to the United States Air Force upon the departure of the Canadians in August 1969,” Pigeon said. “He volunteered to head up the German twinning committee and has served as its chair since that time.” 

A formal twinning agreement was signed by Laking in Zweibrücken on May 7, 1997.

“During the last 25 years since the formal partnership was enacted, Rob Warman has been a key player in promoting the activities and friendships between our two cities,” said Pigeon, a fellow member of the German twinning committee. 

“As we approach the 25th anniversary, his absence will be felt by supporters on both sides of the ocean,” he added. “Rob was a well-respected and admired individual in both cities and his death is mourned by many in both communities. He was a true friend and an ambassador for Barrie and Canada in Zweibrücken, Germany. I will miss him sorely.”

Bill Sergeant was involved with Warman in the Sir Robert Barrie project committee, which honoured the city’s namesake and persuaded city council to name June 7 after Barrie.

“Rob has been a good friend and mentor over the years and a true blessing to the organizations that he had belonged to, especially the RCAF, the City of Barrie, his church and other clubs and organizations that he was part of,” Sergeant said.

Born in Fredericton, N.B., Rob Warman joined the RCMP in 1951 right out of high school and was posted to Newfoundland. In 1954, he joined the Royal Canadian Air Force Service Police (later the MPs) beginning an association with the RCAF that lasted more than 60 years.

For the next 20 years, Warman served at seven different Canadian Forces Bases across Canada, as well as spending seven years deployed as part of Canada’s commitment to NATO in France and Germany.

His last posting was to CFB Borden with the Military Police school, and he retired from the Canadian Forces in 1974 as a master warrant officer.

Warman then began a new career, joining the law and security program at Georgian College in Barrie, where he worked as a professor and administrator for 20 years, preparing students to become officers in policing, corrections, customs and security.

He was first elected to Barrie city council in 1980, and ended his last term in 2003. 

There are no plans to hold a funeral service locally for Warman at this time, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He will be cremated, and his ashes will be interred in Beechwood National Military Cemetery in Vanier (Ottawa) in the spring.