Robert (Bob) Lee Hastings, 87, of Bowling Green, Ohio passed away September 10, 2019. Goodbye Bob! …as of September 10, 2019 I’m gone…gone to Heaven I hope, or wherever it is we go, when we go! I’ve always thought an obituary should be a true and honest reflection of one’s life, to include both accomplishments and shortcomings…with, perhaps, a bit of fudging on the latter. I am writing my own obituary because no one else could possibly know the cheers and jeers I have experienced in 87 years. It will cost a pretty penny to put it in the paper, but I only get one shot at this and Tim Dunn can add it to my funeral expenses!!
First, lets get the particulars out of the way. It all started for me on October 10, 1931 when Robert Lee Hastings was born in Lebanon, Ohio to my 30 year old school teaching mother and 33 year old garage mechanic father, Ralph and Florence Hastings. I was such an exciting birth experience for them that I am an only child! “Uh huh” you are saying, “that explains a lot of things.”
Unless some disaster has befallen them this past week, I am survived by my college sweetheart, multi-College Queen, Margaret “Micky” McClure Hastings, who survived 66 years with me. Also surviving, three successful and handsome sons, two very patient daughter-in-laws, one very nice ex-daughter-in-law, and seven grandchildren, who are, of course, the very smartest and most talented of all grandchildren. In Texas, Robert Ralph “Pepper” Hastings and wife Cheryl, sons Drew and Scott; Timothy Lee Hastings and wife Liza, sons Lucas and Sam. In Bowling Green, Joseph McClure Hastings, granddaughters Jenna and Tara and grandson Brock…their mother and ex-wife Tricia Hastings.
At the time of this writing, I was still attending my weekly Business Networking International meeting, volunteering once a week at the hospital, doing some marketing for Guarantee Cleaning Services, but spending most of my days in front of my computer, eating donuts at Grounds For Thought, or in my marvelous big green chair. But you shouldn’t assume I went away quietly, as I seldom went anywhere quietly. From birth I was usually out front leading the parade at the insistence of my wonderful, before-her-time, “stage mother!” Then, fortified with her genes, I became quite capable of leading my own parades. My Dad was the quietest, most patient of fathers, and I have wished many times I had inherited a bit more of his “count to ten” approach to things…but I didn’t…usually blasting ahead with my best shot. Fortunately most of the time this worked for me, us. When it didn’t, yikes! I think Dad had hoped I would at least have learned to repair my own vehicles, but at 85, I still didn’t know how to open the hood of my car, and when it’s open, don’t know the dip stick from the multiple other sticks under there.
We moved to Bowling Green, Ohio in 1981 and I had already worked 30 years…So, BG folks will only be familiar with my more than 50 stage appearances, my directing of 28 legendary Black Swamp Players musicals and comedies, my 10 years as the City of Bowling Green’s Recreation Coordinator, and possibly my 16 years teaching at Owens Community College.
I didn’t pile up any academic awards at Waynesville High School…but I did win Waynesville’s Best Musician Award, edited the school paper (mimeographed), yearbook (12 pages hand stapled), and was president of my class of 26 all four years…Whoopee! My less than lustrous academic history continued at Otterbein College where I held the first, ever, on-campus dance at this strict United Brethren School, and was one of just three members of Otterbein’s 1953 football team to take the field wearing a leather helmet! Oh, and I learned to bake a lemon meringue pie from scratch at Miami University. I finally got my academic act together in 1962 to earn a legitimate Masters Degree in Education from Wittenberg University. You see, it was embarrassing to sport a certified and verified 134 IQ and send out college transcripts with “C’s” on them.
Dubious Achievements. I was almost an early casualty at 18 months when my appendix burst…it no doubt hurt but I could only cry and say “dada” and “bird!” …I was the Drum Major of the High School Band at age 5; …played drums in the high school band all 12 years; …accompanied my Santa playing mother as her Elf at age 5 and later became the town Santa Claus all through high school; …I think I sang and performed at every social event and wedding in Waynesville for over 15 years; …wearing black face (?) I imitated Al Jolson all over Warren County in Minstrels; …as a drummer, I played for every school dance, but had to go to Arthur Murray’s Dance Studio to learn how to dance myself before the Junior Prom; …drove a stock car for two summers under a fictitious name so my mother wouldn’t find out ..peed my pants in my first race but won the season championship the second season; …joined the American Federation of Musicians at age 14; …my first dance band job was playing at Dayton’s Burlesque Theatre…Rose LaRose, the featured dancer, asked me to give her a rim shot for every pelvic thrust…it was a fun night; …I played one night stands with some of the most popular Big Band Era orchestras at Cincinnati’s Moonlight Gardens, Coney Island (now King’s Island), aboard the paddle wheeler Island Queen, and other Cincinnati and Dayton nightclubs.
As a freshman in a moth eaten all wool uniform, I became the first string high school catcher when senior, Fat Campbell, broke his index finger and no one else wanted the job; …played my sophomore basketball season wearing a double truss (Yuk), then had double hernia surgery in June of that year; …anything but a fighter, at 12 years old, when cornered at the village pool, I hit the town bully in the head and pushed him into the pool with his clothes on…he told me years later he was afraid of me…afraid of me? …signed up to box in the Golden Gloves at 14, but was so scared that when I won the first bout by forfeit, I never went back; …at Miami University started a late night sandwich and milk business for the girl’s dorms who had to be in by 10 pm and later repeated this idea at Otterbein with coffee and donuts for all of the garages in town…sold the business to a freshman when the Health Department came around with a $150 license; …polished appliances and floors at a Westerville appliance store listening to an Eddie Fisher record over and over and over, earning enough to buy my mother her first automatic washing machine; …I cornered nearly 100% of the lucrative college dance corsage business by taking orders at every fraternity house before each dance earning 15% and original corsages for my girlfriend (Micky); …was one of 300 college boys in 1953, 10 days before I was married, who helped build the 20 Anderson grain silos on Alternate 20 called “The Big Pour;” …before I was drafted in 1954, I was a country club lifeguard, and entered the Army with both ears full of swimming pool eczema; …an army medic lanced them, causing me to say “huh” ever since…I then wore hearing aids; after discharge and renewing my Red Cross Certificates swimming in an April frozen lake, I taught a good many of the residents of Bremen, Ohio how to swim; …drafted before I started that first football season in Bremen, my post-basic commanding officer asked if I would like to go to Hawaii for my permanent assignment! Was he kidding? I would have gone anywhere they sent me, but Hawaii? …fighting the “battle of Waikiki” was sure better than post war Korea; …In 1964 I answered an add in Plymouth, Indiana to do play-by-play football and basketball for the local high school team on WTCA FM; …brimming with six years experience in Plymouth, did play-by-play football for KWOW FM in California covering Citrus College; …was a publicity specialist in 1968 to elect Dr. Ottis Bowin as Indiana’s Governor…he served two terms; …drove and chaperoned a school bus full of hormone jumping high school sophomore Go-Go Girls and a Rock Band all over Indiana supporting the 1964 State Republican ticket…they all won…the candidates, not the hormones! …umpired high school and college baseball for 22 years, respected but not always adored by area coaches…the last 5 years with my youngest son, Joe.
As for leadership…I was the president of my high school class all four years, …president of two high school Athletic Booster Clubs, one of them the largest school in Dallas, Texas; …president of the Rotary Club in Columbia, Missouri; …Financial chairman that built a new $300,000 swimming pool in Plymouth, Indiana and a $200,000 stadium renovation in Columbia, Missouri; …president and long time board member of Black Swamp Players Community Theatre group…winner of their Service Award and Lifetime Membership; …president of the BG Optimist Club; Initial Committee member for the Ohio/Ontario Games; …Initial Committee member of the Bowling Green Arts Festival; …Initial Committee member to build a theatre in the Carter Park Water Tower; …with just a few others, skinned and built the four Carter Park Softball Fields; …initiated the first ever BG City Girls Softball program, Lunch-in-the-Park, Concerts-in-the-Park; Movies-in-the-Park; …active member of BG’s First United Methodist Church; …active member of BG’s Business Networking International.
And now, my career. In 1954, armed with a fresh BS degree in Education from Otterbein College, and following two years in the U.S. Army, I taught English, Speech, and was head football and baseball coach for seven years, two at Bremen High School in Bremen, Ohio and five at Greenon High School near Springfield, Ohio. While at Greenon I earned that Master’s Degree in Education I mentioned from Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio; …left teaching in 1963 to sell yearbooks to high schools and colleges out of Plymouth, Indiana; …following six years of leading the nation in yearbook sales, I entered management with Jostens, later joined Taylor Publishing Company out of Dallas, Texas, totaling 23 years in sales, sales training and marketing…the last 15 years as Taylor’s National Sales and Marketing Manager; …as mentioned earlier, we moved to Bowling Green in 1981 to manage the Ohio Taylor efforts before retiring from sales in 1984; …wrote copy for Gauthier and Beach Advertising for two years winning a coveted Toledo award for my “applause” copy; …G&B fired me when I couldn’t write a piece fast enough about “Beryllium”, which I couldn’t even spell at the time; …was the City of Bowling Green’s Recreation Coordinator for 10 years before retiring again in 1997; …taught three communication courses every semester at Owens Community College for 16 years, finally retiring to my big green chair in 2014. There were a few jeers along the way I didn’t mention, but what the heck, I’m writing this obit!
Whew! If you are still with me, we are both tired. I wind this up knowing my friend, Tim Dunn and his daughter Brittany will take care of the particulars. Now then, here are the details of my final Hoorahs! Dunn Funeral Home, located in the Historical District of Bowling Green at 408 W Wooster Street, is handling final arrangements. A Celebration of Life Service will be held on Sunday September 15, 2019 at 4:00 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church, 1506 E. Wooster Street in Bowling Green, Ohio. Rev. Amy Miller will officiate. Visitation will be held Sunday afternoon at the church from 2:00 p.m. until the time of the service at 4:00 p.m.
If you found this obituary a bit different, you might want to attend Bob’s Memorial…enough said?
In lieu of flowers, memorials to Black Swamp Players, Box 601, Bowling Green, Ohio, 43402. Final Note: If you would like to make a REALLY BIG memorial, build BSP their own theatre and put my name in a very small font in the cornerstone!
To share an online condolence or fond memory with the Hastings family please visit www.dunnfuneralhome.com.
