Robert John Maguire, a South Melbourne native and Australian Roman Catholic priest, was active in the community and in the media from 14 September 1934 until 19 April 2023.
Maguire enlisted in the Australian Army Reserve in 1965. He oversaw the Character Training Unit for aspiring officers during the Vietnam War as a lieutenant colonel.
Maguire served as the parish priest of Sts. Peter and Paul’s Church in South Melbourne from 1973 until 2012.
In 2003, the Father Bob Maguire Foundation was established “in an effort to consolidate all of my social investments under a single Board of Governance.”
The “Bob Squad” is the Father Bob Maguire Foundation’s volunteer arm for fundraising and welfare services.
It is modeled after and motivated by Maguire’s sense of revolutionary approach to social justice.
Father Bob Maguire Parents: Meet Annie McLoughlin and James Maguire
James Maguire, a violent drinker who immigrated from Glasgow in 1922, was the father of Maguire when he was born in 1934.
His mother, Annie (née McLaughlin), was from Edinburgh and was constantly “cut, bloodied, and bruised” as a result of her husband’s beatings.