By Sue Moore
The couple was married on February 19, 1954 and celebrated their anniversary 60 years later. Their sons’ arranged for their many friends and neighbors to stop by their home in Schoolcraft to help them celebrate and reminisce about their many years together.
Bob served in the Navy and was home on leave when he visited his sister Alice and met Barb. They spent most of his leave together and wrote to each other when he went back to his ship. He came home at Christmas and they decided it was serious. The next leave was February and off they went, Bob to his ship and Barb to California for a few months until Bob was discharged and then they returned home to Michigan.
He started work at Michigan Bell Telephone, joined the JC’s, became active with a group cutting down elm trees that had died over the years. Bob then joined a group of men who organized the ambulance service in Schoolcraft. After that, the library board called and he volunteered to be on the committee to organize a library for the Village and served as its first president. He was appointed to a vacancy on the Schoolcraft Village Council and served for three years.
Barb, in the meantime also served as a volunteer on many boards in the community, especially the Cancer Society when their youngest son developed cancer at 10 months of age. After their two sons Mike and Dennis went off to school, she went to work for Krum and Sons Chevrolet in Schoolcraft. When that closed she was asked to come to Vicksburg and work for Ken Krum. Although he was killed in an accident in Washington, D.C. she stayed on until 1979, when the position of Village Clerk in Schoolcraft opened up. She applied and got the job and worked for the Village in many capacities including clerk, treasurer, controller, and part-time manager, retiring in the early 90s.