Robert Edward “Sprout” Hirst, 79, of Boynton Beach, Florida and originally of Cranston and Johnston, died peacefully at home on October 12.
Bob was born in Providence on June 23, 1935 to the late Georgia Merrow and Norman Hirst, and spent most of his youth residing on Bay View Ave in Edgewood. He attended Cranston public schools until reaching the age of 16 when he left high school to go to work. Bob lived on Plainfield Street in Johnston as a young adult, and was a volunteer at the Thornton Fire Department. He joined the Laborers Union local 271 and worked on building construction. In 1954, during the Hurricane Carol emergency he began working for Fanning and Doorley Construction Co. of Providence. Shortly after, Bob joined the United States Navy, serving as an aircraft engine mechanic at NAAS Barin Field, Alabama, and NAS Brunswick, Maine.
In 1958, Bob went to the Worcester School of Business Science where he earned a certificate in IBM machine accounting. He was hired by the Navy as a tabulating machine operator at NAS Quonset Point, and six months later he transferred to the CIA in Washington, DC, also as a tabulating machine operator. At this time, he married his true love, Joan Koly of Providence, whom he had known since 1955, and they moved to Washington, DC. While in Washington, Bob found a new position with GEICO and within a few weeks he was selected to attend IBM programmer training. While working for GEICO he became a full time programmer on the IBM 650, 1401 and 7070 computers.
Bob graduated from URI with a BS cum laude in Industrial Management in 1965. He worked for IBM in Providence until 1968, when he returned to URI and earned an MBA. While there, Bob taught computer classes to undergraduates, later joining the faculty until he accepted a position with the Printing Industries of America and moved with his family to Northern Virginia.
In 1973, Bob joined the US Department of Justice as a Computer Specialist and two years later he joined Treasury’s BATF, where he was Chief ADP, Programming and Operations. From there he went to the Treasury’s Comptroller of the Currency as Deputy Director of Information Processing, and played the lead role in the first ever development and installation of a large scale Amdahl dual mainframe computer system to fully service the Comptroller’s ADP operations. Bob later joined the DC Government as a fulltime computer consultant, working there for 5 years. He retired in 1991 and moved to Boynton Beach in 1996, where he resided until his passing.
We will remember Bob as a man devoted to his family, with a prodigious memory and love of storytelling, conversation, baseball, and new ideas.
Bob and Franya Kolodziejczyk (Joan Koly) were happily married for fifty-five years. They travelled extensively in the US and Europe with their children. Bob is survived by wife Franya; and children Robert M., Wendy (husband Stefan Setz and daughter Sophia), Melanie (partner Jason), and Brandon (wife Nadia and children Alexander and Addisen). He also leaves sister Cheryl Hirst Hodgins and her family, of Greenville, along with nieces, nephews and many friends.
