He was known as the Salvo Man - a quiet and constant presence amid the hustle and bustle of the Canberra Centre.
Alan Jessop, who personally collected about $4 million in donations over 32 years, has died peacefully at the age of 95.
Known for his calm and quiet demeanour, he was named ACT's Local Hero in the 2011 Australian of the Year Awards.
And while he appreciated the accolades, he never sought them out.
It was the people he loved - the many thousands of people who moved around him in the centre of the city he had made his home.
His granddaughter, the writer Emma Batchelor, was with him when he died early on Friday morning at Canberra Hospital.
She said while he had been ill for several years - he was diagnosed with prostate cancer 20 years ago, and had had several heart attacks in the years since - losing him was still a shock.
She and her brother, dancer James Batchelor, grew up next door to their grandparents.
She said he had wanted until the very end to return home to be with his wife, Joy.
"We let him keep thinking that," she said.
Alan and Joy had only months ago celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary - the pair had been teenage sweethearts for years before their wedding.
Mr Jessop was born in 1930 in the front bedroom of his family's home in Westmead, his father a worker on the railways.
Over the years, he was a ladies' tailor and gas fitter in Sydney, and with Joy also ran post offices in Coopernook (north of Taree), Corrimal East in Wollongong and Greta in the Hunter Valley.
The couple also owned a dairy farm in Moorland near Taree for six years.
The couple moved to Canberra in 1988 to be closer to their daughter, Wendy.
But it was while they were living in Wollongong that he became interested in the Salvation Army.
"I was Anglican for nearly 50 years and I just got tired of that," he told The Canberra Times in 2021.
"I like the music [of the Salvation Army] and I like the Salvation Army members, they're nice people. I like their charity work, it impressed me very much."
He took up his station with a collection box in the Canberra Centre in the 1990s, and became a regular and comforting fixture.
"If someone gives you the opportunity, you pick it up. As long as someone is good enough to show you the way," he said.
He retired from his post after the COVID-19 pandemic meant only volunteers under 70 were allowed to collect.
He was upset at the time that he didn't have the chance to say goodbye to the mall that had become his workday home, although local radio station 106.3FM took him back to the Canberra Centre in March, 2021, to let everyone know he had retired.
"I was disappointed I had to retire," Mr Jessop said.
"If I didn't have to finish, I wouldn't have."
Ms Batchelor said while her grandfather had been unwell for some time, the family had been unprepared for the outpouring of concern and good wishes at the news of his death.
"We're having a private cremation, but we haven't been able to plan a public memorial just yet," she said.
"We will hopefully be able to organise something.
"We are very proud of everything he achieved and the impact he had on our community - it is comforting to know how much he meant to so many."
