Songs of struggle celebrated the life of a champion of the city’s people at Coventry Cathedral.
Hundreds attended the funeral of former Socialist councillor Rob Windsor yesterday, and the congregation spontaneously joined in with a Bob Dylan classic.
“How many roads must a man walk down, before you call him a man? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind.”
The Right Rev Clive Gregory, Bishop of Wolverhampton and former vicar of St Peter’s Church in Hillfields where Rob served as councillor, remarked: “He was not adherent to any religion.
“He would be happy to be described as spiritual. His spirituality was a love of nature; and a belief in the potential of every person, and the collective potential of humanity.”
The bishop, noting the “widespread affection and respect” Rob earned which made the cathedral the only place big enough for his funeral, described him as a “force of nature, passionate, driven, eloquent and uncompromising”.
In calling for a permanent memorial to Rob, the bishop added: “Others may have upset less people but how many people have served with such integrity, such passion and wholehearted commitment?”
Rob’s fellow Socialist party member Dave Griffiths said his friend was not driven by “individual glory”.
He noted one tribute on website Facebook to the “skinny, scruffy lad with a lot to say” with “one CSE in woodwork” who was “dedicated to fairness and justice”.
Mr Griffiths added: “Rob never had the air of ‘I’m somebody’.
“He’d probably give a quizzical smile at being in these surroundings.”
Speakers from Coventry homeless charity Cyrenians, where Rob worked for nearly 20 years, included Alan Thomas, for whom Rob was best man at his wedding last year.
Paying tribute to his “dedicated” and “unpredictable” colleague, for whom “a suit was as likely as sight of Shergar”, he said Rob had “turned around more people than many would think possible” and that, even in illness last year, Rob “put others’ happiness before his own health”.
The Cyrenians’ Mike Fowler said: “You don’t join the voluntary sector for money, but one benefit is working with fine people. Rob is about as good as it gets.”
Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2012 10:51 pm