Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath MP Gordon Brown has led tributes to a leading figure in the Fife voluntary sector, Bill O’Sullivan, was has died at the age of 59.
Mr O’Sullivan, who had also served as a local councillor for many years, died peacefully in Queen Margaret Hospital. The Kelty man had suffered from cancer.
Mr Brown said, “Bill O’Sullivan will be missed by so many for he gave so much of his life to supporting and helping others.
“As a councillor on Dunfermline District and then Fife Council, he fought hard to bring improvement to the area, but it was his contribution through the voluntary sector that was truly exceptional.
“He supported and set up many local organisations where he saw there was a need and over the 20 years that I knew Bill his drive for fairness and social justice never wavered.”
Mr Brown added that his deepest condolences were for Mr O’Sullivan’s wife Margaret, his children and grandchildren, who he knew “lit up his life and will miss him so much.”
Fife Council Labour leader Alex Rowley said, “Bill was, quite simply, one of life’s good guys who always saw the positive and was an inspiration for so many political and community activists.”
As general manager of Trans Fife Community Transport in Crosshill, Mr O’Sullivan pioneered schemes to help improve disabled accessibility and to help people access work by renting cars and learning to drive.
The transport element of the out-of-hours doctors’ service was also established by Mr O’Sullivan and was one of only few such services to be delivered through a social enterprise across the country.
He also set up a number of voluntary organisation in central Fife, including the Home-Start project in Crosshill.
It was at the initiative that Mr Brown had recently praised Mr O’Sullivan for 30 years of tireless service to the community.
Fife Council for Voluntary Service general manager Bryan Poole said that the voluntary sector was the poorer for the loss of Mr O’Sullivan.
He said, “Bill O’Sullivan made an outstanding contribution to the lives of many people through his work as a councillor, his ground-breaking work in Fife’s voluntary sector bringing new ideas that transformed community transport and social enterprise driven by his personal commitment to fairness and equality.
“His loss will be felt deeply by many people and our thoughts are with his family at this time.”