‘Merry Christmas’ and Three Minutes of Fury: The Lasting Legacy of Bob Weir

GAINESVILLE, Va. – Bob Weir, the Gainesville District Supervisor on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors and a longtime fixture in local politics, died July 20, 2025, after a short but aggressive battle with colon cancer. He was 62.

Weir was known across Prince William County not just for his deep policy knowledge and procedural rigor, but for his fiery style, unfiltered commentary, and devotion to public service. State Senator Danica Roem, who covered Weir during her years as a journalist before entering politics, described him as “a curmudgeon in the most loving sense of the word.”

“Only Bob Weir is Bob Weir,” Roem said in an interview on Monday. “Don’t try to be Bob. Don’t even think you’re Bob.”

Weir’s last public appearance was on July 8, when he participated remotely in a Board of Supervisors meeting. Roem said the illness progressed quickly, and although Weir hadn’t looked well recently, the final days came swiftly.

Before joining the Board of County Supervisors in a 2022 special election, Weir served for decades on the Haymarket Town Council and Planning Commission. Residents knew him as a mainstay at public meetings and a constant presence during Citizens’ Time, where anyone can speak directly to county leaders for three minutes.

“He would speak at the board members,” said Potomac Local News Publisher Uriah Kiser. “Not to them—at them. Then he’d step outside, light a cigarette, and keep talking to anyone who’d listen.”

Roem remembered Weir’s mastery of budget documents, legislative rules, and local government operations. He was known to invoke Jefferson’s Manual or Robert’s Rules of Order during public comment. His speeches were often laced with biting humor and cutting analysis.

“He could flame you one day and then have a beer with you the next,” Roem said. “He cared deeply about transparency, fiscal responsibility, and the public knowing what was really going on.”

Although he was a Republican, Weir frequently won support from voters across the political spectrum, particularly in western Prince William County, where opposition to industrial-scale data centers grew in recent years. Weir positioned himself as a staunch critic of the Prince William Digital Gateway project, a mega-development near Manassas National Battlefield Park, which was tied up in legal red tape.

“If you want to memorialize Bob Weir,” said Roem, “defeat the Digital Gateway. That was his issue.”

Weir’s approach to politics was as nonpartisan as it was combative. Roem noted that during his time in office, Weir intentionally avoided plastering his name or party affiliation on materials from his district office.

“The tent at Haymarket Day didn’t say ‘Bob Weir,’” she said. “It said ‘Gainesville District.’ That’s how he operated—this wasn’t about him.”

Weir’s death marks the second time in recent memory that a sitting Prince William County Supervisor died in office. In 2019, longtime Neabsco District Supervisor John Jenkins passed away and was honored with a formal public funeral. Roem said Weir likely wouldn’t have wanted the same.

“Bob had no interest in pageantry,” Roem said. “He was more likely to be remembered over scotch and stories at Giuseppe’s than at a state funeral.”

In lieu of a formal service, friends and colleagues are expected to gather informally to share memories. Plans are also underway to plant a crabapple tree in his honor at Long Park in Haymarket, near another tree planted for late Planning Commissioner John Liver.

“He did so much with public service,” said Roem. “You might not have agreed with him—but you always knew he’d done his homework, and he wasn’t afraid to tell you exactly what he thought.”

Weir is survived by his wife and three children, close friends and staff, including his longtime aide and confidante Rebecca Bare, whom Roem credited as “the patron saint of Haymarket” for guiding him through his final weeks.

Plans for filling the vacant Gainesville District seat have not yet been announced.

Listen to the full conversation and read Roem’s complete statement about Weir posted to Facebook: