A Tribute and Birthday Wish

He was born in the middle of the Great
Depression, the oldest child of Wenzel Edward
and Mary Louise (Shannon).

He is the grandson of Ben Gruner, the great-
grandson of Wenzel Gruner. He grew up
knowing the value of a dollar. They were
never hungry, he says, but there was
never money for the extras that children
take for granted today.

He took on odd jobs at an early age and
finally quit school before graduating from
high school, in order to work full time.


He was an avid student from the time he
took an alarm clock apart to see what made
it work – and he never stopped teaching
himself new skills. Through on-the-job
training, he eventually became a skilled
electronics technician, a skill that served
him well in the computer age. After over
25 years with Western Union, he retired,
but went to work again on other jobs

His military service was with the US Army
Reserves during the Korean and Cold War era.
Through the years, he has been involved in
community and neighborhood affairs, too
many to mention here.

He is retired now, and slowed down a bit
with health problems. Still he finds time
to work with others in development of
software and new electronic products
and to help family members with computer
problems such as where to go to find out
if they need RMM or DMM when told they
need a new memory module. He used the
Internet as a tool for continuing
education. That is only one question out
of hundreds we ask him.


Happy Birthday Bob

With Family Love,
Your Gruner Families



Read a few of Bob's stories at

Family Recollections

©May 29, 2003
written by Marian Zang