Robert was born in 1910 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. He was a good  young man and during his entire life he remained a good, pious, principled man with a very pleasant personality and a tremendous wit, topped off by a fantastic memory.  He died at the age of 83 after a very decent life. 

He did very well being educated in Catholic schools.  As an exceptional mathematician and an avid reader, he was at the top end of the class.  He played all of sports which the school had to offer.  But he loved football the most of all.  Throughout his life, he was a year around Midwest weekly golfer.  He would even play off-the-greens winter golf on a cold  snowy flurry day.  Few if any summer days passed without a trip to the links until the day he was unable to walk the fairways and after more than fifty years of playing golf.    He would say, golf kept him alive.  He could tell you everything about all the famous golf professionals in his lifetime.  There were always hundreds of magazines somewhere in his house, many where golf magazines.   But nothing ever overcame his love for the ‘Fighting Irish’ football team in South Bend Indiana.

After years of chasing her through the neighborhood, Bob married his high school sweetheart in 1929, at the age of 19.  She was even younger.  They, just like much of the general population experiencing the ‘Great Depression’, had no money in the 1930’s.  Bob’s dream of attending the University of Notre Dame was simply not feasible.  He even spent a few days at a ND football tryout.  But it wasn’t his path.  He had mouths to feed and bills to be paid with a wife and a new baby in the house. 

In 1930, there wasn’t much opportunity for employment for a young 19 year old boy as the vast number of unemployed elder men took most of the jobs.  Under pressure to work, Bob was persistent, and he got hired to be the janitor.  He was lucky and appreciative to have a  job working in a factory cleaning up at night.  It was a guaranteed solid check and he made just enough money for the three of them to survive as a family, living in the basement of another family member.

The company designed and manufactured specialty large equipment work vehicles for companies throughout the world.  Thus, it was called International Truck Engineering.  At night, as he swept and cleaned an empty factory, Bob could watch the daily progress over months to completion as these amazing large specialty vehicles as they were being assembled on the factory floor.  This intrigued him.

In his spare time, while he worked through cleaning the factory floors, he would read the blue prints and schematics laying around, over trucks, on the factory tables, and even sometimes in the trash can.    Those trashed drafts he kept for further investigation.  Each truck was uniquely designed,  and they all had obstacles and problems to overcome while being built. 

After saving up money, Bob bought a used set of books on the study of Engineering.  It wasn’t long before he was a self-taught well educated engineer.   It was shortly after his home school episode that he began providing company engineering solutions to the guys on the factory floor. In only a few years, he was elevated to vice President by the owner.  He worked at the same company for 37 years. 

The Zoellner Automotive Engine factory was located across the road.  They made the pistons for engines.   It just so happens that Bob became friends with Fred Zoellner.  And one of the perks of being friends with Fred was you had plenty of tickets to go watch the basketball team Fred created, supported and owned.  Bob could walk to North Side High school from his house, spend a few hours watching basketball in the evenings and be home for early bed and early morning prayers.  

Fred Zoellner loved the sport of basketball. He started the first long term successful professional Mid-west Indiana based basketball team, in the late thirties.  Initially, he provided players employment in his factory.  During those had economic times,  this alone was key to an above average lucrative lifestyle.  As things rebounded from the Great Depression, he began to pay players a salary.  He treated everything to do with his Fort Wayne Pistons with the very best.  He did everything he could to make the team successful and the organization to grow.  Basketball was an obsession for Fred.  He even got the city of Ft. Wayne to help build one of the largest arenas of its time.

Eventually he was inviting Bob to join the post game festivities which included a meal and mingling conversation with the players from both teams.  Free food had its way of ensuring a big crowd in those days.  

At one of these gatherings, Bob, standing 6’3 (which was considerably tall at that time period) became friends with the tallest 6’10” man in the room, someone from the opposing team, the Lakers, someone who he had closely observed playing with exceptional skill on the court. That player was no other than George Mikan, Mr. Basketball. 

Mikan was at the start of a long and very successful basketball career.  He became the first national, professional basketball superstar.  He changed the game as a player that forced rule changes to respond to his on-court dominance,  as he won many games ‘controlling the paint’.   He later helped push the ABA into existence while working in League operations.  The red, white, and blue balls  … t… well, that was all George’s idea.

Bob and George spoke on many occasions over time and at one point Bob introduced his son Charley to George.   George called him by his name familiar, Chuck, just as everyone else exercised.  He made Chuck feel comfortable.    Charles and Bob spoke often for years after even decades about Mikan and the basketball of that time period,  always emphasising the unbelievable skill and performance of the ‘best player ever in the game’  (The G.O.A.T.) George Mikan, Mr. basketball, never missing the opportunity to mention what a swell nice guy George was during their encounters.  I know this because Bob was my Grandfather and Charles was my father.   

The story of the 19-18 game between the Ft. Wayne Pistons and the George Mikan led Minneapolis Lakers. was told to me in detail by Grandfather.    I heard this story much more than just once.  Always ending in, George forced the League to install the time clock. Thus changing the game forever. Followed by a family debate on what the 24-  ( maybe it was 30?) – second-shot time clock was going to do negatively to the great game of basketball.