Obituaries

Robert McCormick, Longtime Pleasantville Resident

The 61-year-old was a longtime village resident and volunteered with the Pleasantville Fire Department.

Robert Francis McCormick was many things throughout his life —a caddy, a trapper, a bouncer and bartender at Scanlons in Scranton, a golfer and trumpet player, a pipeline workman for the Buckeye Pipeline, a church builder, a waste management laborer at KD Hinkle, a waiter, dishwasher, and busboy at Brookside Country Club, a college graduate, a CPA, a community leader, a volunteer fireman, an avid outdoorsman, a corporate and fiduciary leader, a hobby farmer, and a loving husband, father, and grandfather. Throughout a life of public service and good, he frequently put the cares and needs of others before his own, and was very generous with his time and civic efforts.

Bob or “Mac” (as he was known to some) died September 13th, 2013. He was 61 years old, born in Lima, Ohio April 4th 1952 to the late Bernard Hugh and Ramona (Music) McCormick. After relocating to Macungie, Pennsylvania when he was two, Bob attended local schools, graduating from Allentown Central Catholic in 1970.  Throughout his time as a young man, and throughout his time in college, Bob held a number of odd-jobs, which is where many of the aforementioned pursuits and experiences played their parts - shaping him into the man he would come to be.

After graduating from the University of Scranton at the top of his class in 1974 with a degree in Accounting, Bob began his career with Coopers and Lybrand in Manhattan, NY.  In New York City, through a mutual friend, he met and eventually married his wife Kyrina in the summer of 1975.  After a few years, Bob left the public accounting world to pursue new opportunities with a fledgling NY company tied to the interests of a large European fragrance company. Over nearly forty years of labor, Bob helped grow that small processing and distribution company to a huge fragrance and couture business, now known as PUIG USA.  Throughout the years, he held many roles and responsibilities within the company, most recently the VP of Operations.

As part of the growth of the company he worked for, Bob relocated with his family to Pleasantville, NY in 1980, where he lived for over thirty years, and where he and his wife raised three children - Bernard, Christine and Matthew.

Bob ran for public office, volunteered time with local church programs and charitable organizations, and generally terrorized his neighbors with his longstanding loves of charcoal grilling and wood splitting. Perhaps to make up for these passions, Bob voluntarily took his snow blower out in storms and serviced his nearby neighbors for many years.

Not long after moving to Pleasantville, Bob became a volunteer member of the Pleasantville Fire Patrol where he served with pride for over 27 years.  During his tenure he became a Captain of Fire Patrol, and a Fire District Commissioner.  He was a much-loved cook and caterer of Department events, even after he retired from the Patrol.

In recent years Bob turned his attention towards the reclamation and renovation of a former dairy farm in Gillett, Pennsylvania.  With friends and family, he restored the house and barn, purchased and ran some amazing farm equipment, built an extensive irrigation system, improved the waterfowl environment, and planted an orchard.  Bob often claimed that if he only had “this one more piece of equipment he would probably have just the right mix”. That was about seven purchases ago.

Bob loved the time spent at the farm, and the time spent with his friends and family cooking, maintaining the property, and hunting. There he hosted several family reunions, always proud of showing his family his latest achievements on the land.  Bob was a man proud of his accomplishments, but he not a braggart - rather the true quiet man - a man for all seasons in the framework of Thomas Jefferson. The last two books Bob was reading were about increasing corn crop yields and quantum mechanics. Bob’s strength, breadth, and stature, combined with his signature “eyebrow raised” smile were only overshadowed by the accomplishments of his life.

Bob was preceded in death by his father, Bernard Hugh Sr. And his brother Bernard Hugh Jr. They will be fishing somewhere today.

Bob is survived by his mother, Ramona (Music) McCormick, of Florida; his spouse, Kyrina (Cabezas) McCormick; his two sons, Matthew, Bernard and wife Alicia, his grandson Quin, as well as his daughter Christine, all of New York.

Bob is also survived by his five siblings: sister, Marie, brother Thomas and wife Mary and their children, all of Florida; brother, Daniel and wife Maryellen and their children, as well as William and wife Claire and their children, all of Pennsylvania; and his brother Timothy, in Australia.

Private services will be held at Bentley Creek Cemetery in Ridgebury, PA. In lieu of flowers, please consider donations to McKenna Farms Therapy (
http://www.mckennafarmstherapy.org/). There will be a memorial service in Westchester, NY mid-October. Anyone interested in attending should contact Bob’s son, Bernard (bernie@sworks-tech.com).


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