Ballarat horticulturalist and community figure Bob Whitehead OAM has 'rounded off his life very beautifully' after dying on the day of his 96th birthday.
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Mr Whitehead's passion for community service, along with his green thumb, saw him honoured with an Order of Australia Medal in 2016 for 'service to the community, particularly in Ballarat'.
Mr Whitehead helped set up the Friends of the Ballarat Botanical Gardens and was also a member of many boards, including the Ballarat Cemetery Trust, the Ballarat Children's Home and Ballarat High School's chaplaincy committee.
A horticulturalist by trade, Mr Whitehead studied at the Burnley School of Horticulture and worked for the City of Melbourne and City of Hawthorn, before moving to Ballarat to take up a position as director of Ballarat Parks and Gardens.
In that role, Mr Whitehead created the Lake Esmond Botanic Gardens of Natural Flora in the late 1980s.
Foster care was also a strong focus for Mr Whitehead and his late wife Ruth, with the couple caring for more than 30 children over a 20 to 30-year period.
Mr Whitehead's son, Robert Whitehead, said his father was a 'true gentleman'.
"He was somebody who flew under the radar in both his personal life and his charity work and always put other people first and we had that drilled into us - that you always put others before yourself," he said.
"He was a man of principle and values and strong belief and strong faith, and he lived by those principles. As far as I think my brothers and sister, and I were concerned, he was our example because he was a very dedicated and devoted father, very gentle, very concerned about other people's situations and a very gracious, dignified man.
"He was not the sort of man to blow his own trumpet by any stretch at all. He was just a quiet achiever that just went about doing what needed to be done in order to help other people. I think his life's work would be his greatest achievement."
Robert said his father lived a rich and full life.
"He died on his 96th birthday. Typical of my father, he rounded off his life very beautifully, because he was very neat and tidy and kept everything in order. It was just typical Dad."
Mr Whitehead is survived by his five children, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
A funeral for Mr Whitehead will be held on Friday, February 18 at 11am at one2one Church of Christ, followed by a private burial at Ballarat General Cemetery.
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