There will be a graveside service for Robert J. French, Sr., 77, who died on March 13, 2020, at 11 a.m., Saturday, June 27, 2020 at the Oak Hill Cemetery in Camden. Arrangements are with the Long Funeral Home, 9 Mountain Street, Camden. 

CAMDEN — Robert John French, Sr., 77, was born on October 2, 1942 in Bangor and was the son of Dwight and Leora (Brown) French.

The family moved to Camden where Bob grew up attended schools here and was a member of the Class of 1961 at Camden High School. On June 15, 1968, he married Dolores Whitten.

As an auto mechanic, Bob worked at Boynton Chevrolet in Camden, Ellery T. Nelson Dodge in Rockland, then over 40 years for SAD 28 maintaining their fleet of school buses. 

A 35 year member of the Camden Fire Department, Bob also worked ten years as a dispatcher there. He was a founding member of the Camden Fire Department Access Team and providing the first vehicle extrication tools and training for the Camden-Rockport area. He also provided ambulance maintenance and repair for the Camden First Aid Association for 20 years. 

Bob was a 54 year member of the Amity Masonic Lodge, and had served on the budget committee and cemetery committee for the Town of Camden.

He loved snowmobiling, repairing antique vehicles with his three sons, and was proud of the fact that he “grew up with his boys.” Bob especially enjoyed working on his Chevy Corvairs and driving them around mid-coast Maine.

Surviving is his wife of 51 years, Dolores French; three sons, Jeffery French and his wife, Kala Meyers-French, Robert J. French, Jr. and his wife, Stephanie, all of Camden, and Mike French and his wife, Rebecca of Warren; seven grandchildren, Tanya Simmons and her husband Jacob Johnson of Tenants Harbor, Sara Merrifield and her husband, Cole of Cushing, Garrett French of Warren, Kaitlyn French and her significant other, Zac Heanssler of Blue Hill, Joshua French of Deer Isle, Austin French and Kameron French, both of Camden; two great-grandchildren Riley Johnson, and Landen Merrifield, and one expected in June; a sister-in-law, Dorothy Johnson of Thomaston; and several nieces and nephews.

A graveside service will be announced in the spring in Oak Hill Cemetery. 

Robert J. French, Sr., 77, husband of Dolores (Whitten) French, died on Friday, March 13, 2020 at the Sussman House. 

A complete obituary will be published later. 

A graveside service will be announced in the spring. 

Condolences may be shared with the family at www.longfuneralhomecamden.com.  

Arrangements are with the Long Funeral Home, 9 Mountain Street, Camden.