The Centre’s executive director Beth Ellis told the Stoney Creek News that phone calls are coming in from doctors, nurses and former patients mourning the loss of the 95-year-old physician who was a driving force for better health care in the area.

“It seems everyone has been touched by his death,” said Ms. Ellis. “He meant a lot to everyone that knew him, he will be missed.”

Hundreds will be on hand today to honour the long-time doctor who touched the lives of thousands of people.

Dr. Kemp has been called a compassionate and caring physician who believed the health care system should move around the patient, as opposed to the patient moving around the system.

“He was a wonderful man, kind and compassionate, and those who are calling here expressing their condolences are attesting to that,” she said. “We’ve had people calling who knew him right from birth, it’s a testament to how great of a man he was.”

Dr. Kemp was a family doctor who worked out of his home for half a century on Wardrope Avenue.

His hard work was realized with the construction of the St. Joseph’s Community Centre.

He was regarded as a visionary, always ahead of the current health-care thinking.

“I believe he was someone that people working in the healthcare system today could really learn from,” said Ms. Ellis. “He was remarkable.”

From his passion grew the Dr. Bob Kemp Hospice, which began as a day hospice program at the Church Of The Redeemer in Stoney Creek about 15 years ago. The program shifted to the St. Joseph’s Community Health Care Centre for a few years before moving to Dr. Bob’s house in 2000. Ms. Ellis said Dr. Bob donated his home to the hospice program after he retired.

Born in London, Dr. Bob attended the University of Western Ontario and served his internship at Hamilton General Hospital in 1940 before opening his family practice in Stoney Creek. He was a coroner for 35 years and a charter member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Hamilton East Wentworth Rotary Club. In 1976 he was named the family physician of the year in Canada and Stoney Creek’s citizen of the year. Dr. Bob is survived by his wife of nearly 69 years Mildred, daughter Linda and her husband Bruce Hutchinson, two grandchildren and three great grandchildren.