Tribute: Robert Bahr

So far 2012 is off to a pretty crappy start. We awoke to the news that John's stepfather, Robert Bahr, had died New Year's Day.

Where do I begin.

Bob has been a fixture in our lives for over 30 years. When my husband bought me my engagement ring, I think the first thing we did was tell my parents and the second was to head on over to the Elks where Bob and my mother in law were out dancing and ringing in the New Year . (There's New Year's again...)

(Bob and Sue tearing up the dance floor at our nephew's wedding rehearsal dinner)

Professionally, Bob was a doctor - which was darned useful as we began having children, I probably called him at least once a month to ask him again what were the signs of a concussion.

But, beyond the obvious family stuff, I knew him mostly as a wood turner and golfer. Especially after he retired from medicine, he was either down in his shop working on a piece of wood or else out on the golf course. (Poor Bob, he played golf most days of his adult life and spent almost every one of them swearing, either at the ball, the clubs, or the scorecard - or me as I "13 putted")

As a wood worker he became legendary. While he personally would never admit that he was a true artist (to his dying day he said he didn't know what he was doing) he studied with and befriended almost every major woodturner in the world. If you meet a famous woodworker, ask them if they stayed at Bob Bahr's house and the answer will probably be yes.

Here are some photos of his wood:

Occasionally Bob would add paint and dye to his wood - this piece is maple burl under all that wild color.

He did a series of these carvings.

One of my favorites and a good representation of his sense of humor.

This I dubbed the "cy-clock" He made hundreds of clocks.

This piece is both painted and textured with a wood burner.

This piece is a replica of an earlier piece Bob had the poor judgement to sell - it was one of Sue's favorites and he had to make another.....

A wonderful Grandfather Clock from his earlier days.

A piece in progress.....

The finished piece.

Another smaller piece of the same type. In the last couple of years he made a series of these aiming to get ever smaller and more delicate.

One of the tiniest woodturnings I have ever seen.

Bob and his son - also a wood turner - had a competition to see who could make the smallest of these. I'm not sure whose are whose.

A fraction of work from a career of over 40 years.

I would like to include here a few words from my portion of the eulogy from his funeral.

"Bob was one of the most generous men I ever met. My friends and family have him to thank for nice toilet seats to sit on. During one of his visits to our home he took one look at the state of our toilet seats (which had come with the house), turned on his heel and went out to the store and bought me all new ones.

Another time, when I was in the hospital following the birth of our first child, Bob decided to vacuum my house for me. He turned on our sweeper, declared it a "piece of crap" and headed out and bought us a new one. (Upon later inspection, we found the bag on the old sweeper was just full.)

He always could make us laugh but his sense of humor was not for everyone. Once, during a visit to our apartment in Chicago, we went downtown to see an Andrew Wyeth exhibit. It was one of those ticketed events that had a certain start time. With some time to kill, we strolled up and down Michigan Avenue and checked out places like Tiffany and Gucci. While in the luggage section of Gucci, a woman approached the salesman and inquired wether or not there were any suitcases "without all these little G's all over them." Bob looked at me and said "Why doesn't the stupid woman go to Sears? Who buys a Gucci suitcase if they don't want everyone to know it's Gucci?!!" While I was embarrassed - I was pretty sure the woman heard him - I could not help laughing out loud.

He introduced my children to cake and donuts for breakfast, Powers Hamburgers and Foul Language (I'd still like to take that one up with him) He often teased them pretty badly but all my kids developed a thick skin and a razor wit to keep up with him and give back as good as they got. A skill that has served them well in the big, bad world.

I only remember Bob getting really mad at me one time. He was a rapid fan of Indiana University basketball (he was an IU alum) and, while he was visiting us and we all had to go out during the game, I promised I would use the VCR and tape it for him. I swore I did everything right. And I almost did. But when we returned, there was no recording of the game. Unbeknownst to me our VCR clock was incorrectly set to am instead of pm."

Bob was a big and bold person and he brought me out of my shell and taught me to "go for it" no matter what "it" was. When I started this blog, he was my biggest fan and the first person to put something in my "tip" jar. Imagine my delight when I got the paypal notice that I had a little extra money waiting for me.

For over 28 years he was a bedrock in all our lives - as long as he was around we knew we had someone in our corner who could help make everything turn out all right. He gave us a sense of security and brought us so much joy and our lives are truly richer for having known him.

Every Christmas Eve Bob had a big party and gave away the things he had made to his friends and family. You had to play the "dirty Santa" game where you steal things from other people to get them but everyone had a great time and there were almost never any sore losers.

You can see the joy of his guests (but I'm pretty sure my niece did not wind up with that clock by the end of the night)

So many breafasts and lunches with him at this counter.

With our daughter

Pretty sure some teasing and bickering going on here.....

Bob and my daughter had a running thing with cheating each other out of the good recliner - Unfortunately, it is all hers now.

Good bye Bob - we will miss you more than you can know.

Comments

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so sorry Anne. thinking of you and your family.

Posted by: S Revis | 01/07/2012 at 02:25 PM

Only really good people inspire this kind of memory -- I've always said there is more laughter at a funeral than at a wedding because everyone's guard has been knocked down and, once the requisite cliches and pieties have been said, they start remembering the real person. Sounds like he left you all with a lot to remember. Really, in the end, what more can we hope to do?

Posted by: Mike Peterson | 01/08/2012 at 07:35 AM