Bob Rose was a member of a well-known Victorian sporting family whose name became almost synonymous with the Australian Rules Football club, Collingwood. Bob and his brothers Bill, Kevin, Ralph and Colin all played for the 'Magpies' and Bob's eldest son Robert continued the sporting tradition, playing cricket for Victoria as well as football before a car accident in 1974 left him quadraplegic.
The story of the family's devoted care of Robert for the next twenty-five years, until his death in 1999, is the subject of the award-winning Rose Boys, by poet and editor Peter Rose, Bob's second son.
Bob Rose died from cancer at the age of seventy-four; a public memorial service was held for him at the Melbourne Town Hall.
