We are deeply saddened to hear the news that the Honorable Robert S. Bloxom has passed away: https://shoredailynews.com/…/robert-s-bloxom-passes-away/
As the Eastern Shore’s longtime Delegate and Virginia’s first Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture, Bob Bloxom was an incredible public servant and an irreplaceable asset to our community. There will be many very well-deserved tributes to his remarkable service.
They may not mention that to the brain injury survivor community of the Eastern Shore, the Honorable Robert S. Bloxom is a hero and a legend. When the brain injury survivors and caregivers of the Shore said, at a brain injury town hall meeting over 20 years ago, that they needed day support services, then-Delegate Bloxom made it happen. He made it look easy, although of course it wasn’t.
Twelve years later, when brain injury services in our region were in a tight spot and we needed community support to convince Virginia to award the state contract for our region to a local provider (No Limits Eastern Shore), the late founding No Limits member Maggie Byrd carried that request to him at his family business, Bloxom Auto.
Bob was retired by then. When he heard that No Limits and the local brain injury survivor community needed his help, he smiled and said, “Not again!”. He no longer had a secretary, so he went home that night and hand wrote a letter of support. No Limits Eastern Shore was awarded the contract.
The Honorable Robert S. Bloxom continued to support survivors of brain injury even in his retirement in his role on the Eastern Shore of Virginia Community Foundation and we were honored when he came out to our Open House in March 2017 to see the results of a Productivity and Outreach grant they awarded to us, funding our hot dog cart, a chicken coop, and accessible walking trails brochures.
We called him Bob because that’s what he wanted us to call him. Bob called us by our names, because once he met you he remembered you. He did all kinds of great things for the Eastern Shore that he will be long remembered for and we are deeply grateful that he also did great things for the local brain injury community.
