This holiday season undoubtedly is a difficult one for the Kirsopp family of Hampton.
For the first time, Robbie, Ray and Rachel are facing the challenge of trying to celebrate without their father, township police Sgt. Robert James Kirsopp, who died May 1 at age 52.
But his children and wife, Rosalyn, can look forward to a memorial on his behalf coming to fruition.
“Warrior: The Robert Kirsopp Documentary” premieres at 6 p.m. Dec. 28 at the Greater Pittsburgh Masonic Center in Ross.
“The movie is covering his entire life, from he was born to when he passed, everything that we could put in there,” son Robbie, 21, explained.
Now a member of the U.S. Army, Robbie enjoyed working with video production while attending Hampton High School, from which he graduated in 2022. His mother suggested he put something together about his father as he battled cancer.
“Two weeks before his passing, over a weekend, we filmed the entire movie,” Robbie said. “The first day, we did the whole interview with my dad, spent the whole day filming him, getting his story, getting everything from birth to death.”
The next day involved talking with Robert’s friends, colleagues, extended family members and folks throughout the Hampton community.
“I had maybe 15 people all split up into groups, and they went out, and it was the most well-executed thing I think I’ve ever seen in my life,” Robbie recalled.
He did plenty of planning, including time he devoted to the project while in Louisiana for a training mission with the 82nd Airborne Division.
“I was sitting in a field writing the schedule down for the days we were going to film, on a notepad, getting rained on,” he said. “Coming out of the field, I started texting people.”
One of them was a community member who works with the media division at UMPC and helped secure cameras for the filming, which took place April 13-14.
“Since that day, it’s just been getting edited,” Robbie said.
All proceeds from the documentary’s premiere and related donations will benefit the It’s About the Warrior Foundation, founded in 2012 by Air Force veteran Steve Monteleone to assist and empower fellow veterans from the Tri-State area.
“Hearing about the news of my dad, he was trying to help any way he could,” Robbie said about Monteleone, “and that’s how the IATW got involved with my family.”
Robert was an Army veteran and former military police officer between 1990 and 1995. He served with Hampton police for 26 years.
He is laid to rest at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies in Washington County.
Tickets to “Warrior: The Robert Kirsopp Documentary” are $10. Visit www.eventbrite.com and search for “Kirsopp.”
