Volunteer firefighter fondly remembered

Friday, Oct. 3, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Submitted photo Robert Terwilliger, pictured in his class As, was a member of St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

‘‘He was a fine young man and a wonderful father,” Carol Terwilliger said of her son, Robert Terwilliger, 36, of Port Republic. Terwilliger was father to Matthew, 10, Brenna, 5, and step daughter Autumn, 7. He was married to Heather Terwilliger.

His children were his life and he was very devoted to them, Heather Terwilliger said. ‘‘He loved his children very much.”

His 10-year-old son Matthew is the spitting image of his father, Carol Terwilliger said, ‘‘which gives me a great peace when I look at him.”

Matthew and his father went fishing almost every day, she said. He was a great hunter and fisherman, Carol Terwilliger said.

Lt. Jimmy Gryskewicz of the St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department said, ‘‘He was a very good friend of mine. It’s a very tragic loss and he will be missed by all of us.” Gryskewicz, too, said his son was a mirror image of his father and was with Terwilliger the night before the accident.

Terwilliger served with the fire department for eight years and was a great guy, Chief Monty Parks said. ‘‘It’s a shame,” he said.

‘‘We called him Bobby,” his mother said.

In his teenage years he was known as ‘‘Twigg” and at the fire department they called him Rob, she said.

Since the accident, the firefighters all went far beyond the call, Carol Terwilliger said. ‘‘Their only concern was for Bobby and the family,” she said. ‘‘They were just wonderful.”

St. Leonard Volunteer Fire Department set up a tribute to Terwilliger on its Web site.

His wife Heather said she called the Maryland State Police’s Forestville barrack and was told that the accident wasn’t her husband’s fault.

The driver of the other vehicle, TJ Rome Dinkins, 25, of Lanham was merging from the shoulder when he struck Terwilliger’s vehicle. Dinkins has not been charged in the accident. Tfc. Charles Stevenson of the Forestville barrack said the investigation is ongoing.

According to judicial records, Dinkins was sentenced for an unrelated traffic citation on Aug. 13 for a guilty plea of driving an unsafe vehicle on the highway and given probation before judgment in a Hyattsville court.