Haiti Earthquake Claims Tampa Bay Philanthropist, 80 Year- Old Robert Feister

In 1966 Robert Feister fell in love. He fell in love with Haiti, the island and its people. After reading about Haiti in the Washington Post, and visiting the small island, Mr. Feister knew what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. He came back from Haiti determined to buy a house there. He learned to speak Creole.

Mr. Feister was a successful business man. He wanted to earn a living in Haiti but decided it would be better to settle in Florida and go back and forth. He set up a store in Port-au-Prince and brought supplies into the small villages in the mountains. He bought himself a small concrete house. Soon Children were arriving at his door begging for food. He fed the children, and gave rice and beans to their families. Sundays he cooked chicken dinners for the whole village.

Throughout the years he regularly fed many families. He helped get them medical care. He bought presents and toys for the children. As he drove through the villages, he threw tennis balls to the children. They called him "ball Bob." When one of the mothers in the village died, he took in her five children and raised them as his own.

His wife, Martha did not want to move to Haiti so Mr. Feister divided his time between his luxurious home in Tierra Verde, Florida, and his concrete-block house in Haiti. When he was in Florida, he called his "kids" in Haiti every day on the cell phones he bought them. Mrs. Feister never met the kids personally, but they smile at her from framed photographs throughout her home.

Mr.Feister's plane landed just before noon in Port-au-Prince last Tuesday. He checked into a small guest house. He planned to rest awhile before setting out for his house in the mountains.

Mr. Feister loved taking naps. His family hopes he was asleep when the earth quake struck later that day. He was buried in the rubble of the country he loved. Family members spent four days trying to track down Bob Feister's body. They eventually learned that Mr. Feister had been buried in a mass grave.

According to his wife, Bob Feister had wanted to be cremated. He wanted half his ashes scattered in Haiti and half scattered in the US. Sadly this was not to be. As his wife planned his memorial service she said," It's awful, not getting to say good-bye."

Sources:

TBO.com.

St. Pete Times