ROBERT Whan, who represented the bellwether seat of Eden Monaro during the Whitlam years, has died aged 82.
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Mr Whan, commonly known as Bob, suffered a heart attack last week and did not regain consciousness.
He passed away on Sunday night.
Mr Whan was first elected to the federal parliament in 1972, following the retirement of long time member Allan Fraser.
He survived a close run thing two years later, when Marulan’s Ron Brewer, representing the Country Party, stood against Mr Whan in 1974.
The sitting member scraped home by 137 votes, but would go on to lose the 1975 election to the Liberal Party’s Murray Sainsbury.
Mr Whan was born on January 5, 1933 in Wodonga. As a child, he moved to Melbourne, attending East Kew Central School and Richmond Technical College.
The Whan family moved to King Island to work in the dairy industry.
A 15-year-old Bob left school to work for a farmer who still relied on a bullock dray for transport.
Returning to NSW, he worked in a wool store in Albury, gaining a wool classing certificate.
Wool classing led to wool testing in Sydney where Bob put himself through university, gaining a Degree in Wool Technology.
He completed postgraduate studies at Leeds University in the United Kingdom and went on to become an award-winning wool researcher.
His son, former Labor politician Steve Whan, paid tribute to his father on social media.
“We and many others will miss his stories (even the ones we had heard a million times!), his passion for important issues and for having a talk,” he wrote in a Facebook post.
“Dad led a selfless life, he strove to improve our society, he was a Labor man and he lived it.
“We will miss him. Rest in peace Bob Whan.”
Local Labor Party stalwart Bob Stephens described Mr Whan as a “strong economist with an agricultural outlook”.
“(He was) a solid Labor man,” Mr Stephens said.
Echoing Mr Stephens’s statement, former Goulburn Post journalist Leon Oberg simply described Mr Whan as “a good, hard working MP and a good all round bloke”.
Outside politics, Mr Whan founded Jobless Action, was executive director of the Australian Council for Overseas Aid and head of the NSW Milk Board.
He was a life member of the Labor Party and the Benevolent Society and had a CSIRO medal.
Mr Whan is survived by his wife of 53 years Gill, children Sue and Steve, their spouses Brad and Cherie, and grandfather Lachie, Maddi, Georgie and Jaimi.