Robert Walter “Bob” Bartig, 91, Nelsonville, a former store owner and manufacturer, died Tuesday, March 12, 2013, in an accident at his home.
A Funeral Mass will be held at 11 a.m. Saturday, March 23, at St. James Catholic Church in Amherst.
Visitation will be from 4 to 8 p.m. Friday, March 22, at the Jungers-Holly Funeral Home in Amherst and at the church from 10 a.m. Saturday, March 23, until the Mass. A prayer service will be held at 6 p.m. Friday, March 22, at the funeral home.
Memorials may be made to St. James Catholic Church Building Fund.
Mr. Bartig was born Jan. 17, 1922, a son of the late Arthur and Elsie (Hagedorn) Bartig. He graduated from Augusta High School in 1941 and attended the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and UW-Madison.
He was married to Eleanor Katherine Holland in 1946 at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church at Truman in Lafayette County, Wis. She died March 19, 2011.
The couple moved their family in 1956 to Nelsonville where he went into partnership with Charles Alm and formed Bartig & Alm, Hardware & Implements. In the early 1970s they partnered with Erv Mittelstedt to manufacture potato digger draper chain in the former creamery building. In 1981 he retired from Bartig & Alm and began working part time in real estate sales. He also began serving as a trustee on the board of directors of the International Bank of Amherst, a post he held for 30 years, stepping down at the age of 90.
He served on the Nelsonville Village Board in several different capacities. He was also a lector at St. James Catholic Church of Amherst before becoming a lay minister in 1983, serving in that role for more than 20 years.
He played drums in the Ludwig Trio with his friends Art Bohr and Andy Anderson. He sat in with professional musician Peter Ostroushko at the Wausau Log Jam Festival in 1989.
Survivors include three daughters, Jean (Steve) Meyer, Madison, and Kaye (Mark) Pethe and Carol Bartig, both of Seattle Wash.; three sons, Dennis (Eileen), Nelsonville, Gary (Karen), Minneapolis, Minn., and David, Madison; one sister, Betty (Bartig) Alix, Minneapolis, Minn.; seven grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
