Bob Sympson, the Lynbrook/East Rockaway Herald's 2010 Person of the Year
A tireless, tenacious, tree lover
When you ask people who know Bob Sympson to describe him, four words come up again and again: talented, tenacious, tree lover.
“He is so committed, so dedicated, and truly a tenacious man,” said his wife, Pat Sympson. “When he sets his mind to do something, he’ll work very hard to accomplish it.” His tireless work with trees and educating the community about them, along with his lifelong conservation efforts, are just some of the reasons that Sympson is the Herald’s 2010 Person of the Year.
Born in Kentucky, Sympson attended the University of Kentucky, majoring in poultry husbandry — raising chickens. He graduated in 1956, and was an exchange farmer in Pakistan for a year before joining the Army’s counterintelligence bureau in his 20s and being stationed in Brooklyn. He met his future wife while they both attended St. John’s University, where he studied agriculture. They married in 1962, and moved to Marion Street in East Rockaway three years later. Their daughter and son-in-law, Veronica and Robert Krendel, live just five blocks away, so the Sympsons get to see their grandchildren often: Caroline, 14, is a freshman at Lynbrook High School; Georgia, 12, is a seventh-grader at South Middle School; and John, 10, is a fifth-grader at Marion Street Elementary.
Sympson taught science and horticulture at Vincent Smith School in Port Washington for four years. In 1965, he went on to teach at Valley Stream South High School, retiring from there in 1991. Then he turned his full attention to volunteerism — and trees.
Because he is a resident of East Rockaway but lives in the Lynbrook school district, both villages have benefited from Sympson’s work. As a member of Lynbrook’s Environmental Concerns Committee, he initiated tree plantings in both Lynbrook and East Rockaway. Under his leadership, Lynbrook developed a community garden at the end of Wright Avenue where residents can rent 40 plots and cultivate plants of their choice — tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, carrots and more.
