Robert “Bob” Schuster was born in Green Bay, Wisconsin to Maynard and Hazel (Sackett) Schuster following his father’s retirement as an officer in the U.S. Army and his mother’s discharge from the Army Nursing Corps. Three months later, after Maynard abandoned a career as a jazz trumpeter and band leader and established himself as an insurance agent for the Old Line Life Company, the family moved to Fairwater.
Fairwater was the family’s home for 14 years. During that time, his father served as treasurer of Fairwater’s Zion Lutheran Church and as superintendent of its Sunday School. His mother served as a Sunday School teacher and as a leader of Fairwater’s Cub Scout pack. Bob attended Sunday School at the church for eleven years, completed two years of confirmation classes at Zion, and graduated from Fairwater’s grade school.
When the family moved to Madison, Wisconsin in 1962, Bob enrolled in the second class at Madison’s new Robert M. LaFollette High School and graduated in 1966. Over those years, he was a member of the varsity wrestling team, drama club, debate team, and student council. He represented the school for three years in the state’s mathematics competitions and was recognized as a National Merit Scholar. With longtime friend and novelist David Benjamin, he was also founder of and contributor to a quarterly literary magazine known as “The Id,” now preserved in LaFollette High School's collection.
Following high school, he enrolled in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s honors program, where he was nominated for a Fulbright Fellowship.
After graduating in 1970, Bob served two years of alternative military service in the burn unit at Denver General Hospital, where he met Boston native Kathleen Wiatrowski. They were married in 1972 and returned to Madison, where Kathy completed her undergraduate degree in sociology and Bob completed a Master’s degree in English Literature.
He was accepted as a PhD candidate at the University of Virginia’s School of American Literature but opted for a position with the UW-Madison School of Medicine as an instructional specialist in the school’s pioneering distance education program.
Subsequently, Bob transferred to the UW School of Nursing, where he developed the Simonds Center for Instruction and Research, assumed responsibility for computerizing the school, and served as a technology spokesman for the school. As a last project, he served the University in 2004 as a member of the design team for the Medical School’s new instructional center.
During his years at the university, Bob also freelanced, co-authoring a book on landscaping with native American plants for the McGraw-Hill Publishing House, writing the screenplay for the Upjohn Corporation’s 100th anniversary film, and developing medical databases for Madison-area health facilities. He also developed websites for numerous Wisconsin local history groups.
In 2005 he retired to Fairwater, where he had become active in the Fairwater Historical Society and the Fairwater Lions Club. With Eleanor Loomans in 2010, he planned the 100th anniversary and reunion of the Fairwater grade school and wrote a book on the history of the school. He was also active as an amateur Wisconsin historian, focusing with historian Kevin Dier-Zimmel on the history of Wisconsin’s anti-slavery movement. Together, they uncovered and documented the history of Fairwater’s two Civil War Medal of Honor winners, brothers James and George Pond.
Inspired by his great-grandfather Nathaniel Grant, a cousin of Ulysses Grant and a Deacon of the Wrightstown, Wisconsin, Freewill Baptist Church as well as Fairwater’s historic Freewill Church, Bob co-founded the Wisconsin Freewill Baptist Historical Society with Milwaukee historian Jack Copet.
In retirement, he and Kathy became avid gardeners, a source of great satisfaction for them, and developed a collection of more than 4,000 American and foreign films.
Bob is survived by Kathy, his wife of 44 years, his son David and daughter-in-law Whitney Dirks-Schuster, his mother Hazel, his sister Pat and brother-in-law Rick Lapp, his sister Pam and brother-in-law Jerry Offerdahl, his brother-in-law Edward Wiatrowski, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.
He was preceded in death by his father Maynard, his grandparents Anton and Rose Schuster of Wausau and Ray and Flora Sackett of Kasson, Minnesota, and Kathy's brother Michael Wiatrowski and mother Ada and step-father Henry Auld, all of the St. Petersburg, Florida area.
For Bob, Fairwater and Zion Lutheran were a lifelong anchor, a place of comfort and many friends.
His only regret, as he was fond of saying, was in not completing his imaginary great American novel.
The family would like to thank Dr. Michael Frontiera and all the nurses, medical assistants, scheduling staff, and lab staff of Dean Specialty Clinics in Columbus, Beaver Dam, and Madison and the Columbus Community Hospital for the care they provided to him over his 7-year battle with myelodysplastic syndrome and then acute myeloid leukemia. The family also thanks the many doctors, nurses, and other staff who cared for him during his 28-day stay at St. Mary's in Madison following induction therapy for AML and Agnesian HealthCare Hospice Hope of Green Lake. We especially thank the people who donated blood for the 70+ blood transfusions Bob had over the past year and a half. Special thanks to the neighbors and friends who prayed, called, sent cards, visited, brought food, mowed the lawn, fed the cats, harvested the garden, and sat with Bob during his last days, especially David Benjamin, Lester Dore, David Schimmel, and Tom and Mary Montag.
Memorials to Zion Lutheran Church Pastor's Discretionary Fund are appreciated. And if you can, please consider giving the gift of life and donating blood.
Visitation on Friday, October 7, 2016, from 4-7pm at Butzin-Marchant Funeral Home, 515 Mayparty Dr., Ripon, WI 54971, with Fairwater Lions Club Memorial Service Rites at 7pm.
Visitation on Saturday, October, 8, 2016, from 1-2pm, followed by a Memorial Service at 2pm, at Zion Lutheran Church, 100 Church St., Fairwater, WI 53931 with Pastor Shari Routh officiating. Inurnment will follow immediately at Fairwater Cemetery in the Village of Fairwater.
Note: obituary prepared by Butzin-Marchant Funeral Home
Src: Find A Grave