Robert Allan Pietsch

Robert A. "Bob" Pietsch, age 78, passed away peacefully at home on June 8, 2026, in Viroqua, Wisconsin. He was the son of the late Donald and Arlene (Richter) Pietsch.

Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Bob graduated as the valedictorian of Slinger High School and went on to become a mechanical engineer. He never met a problem he couldn't solve or a contraption he couldn't jimmy-rig (although his contraptions were engineering marvels, rather than makeshift repairs of duct tape and a prayer).

He met his best friend and partner, Mary Schloemer, at a party, where the two of them talked all night. That conversation turned into 53 years of life together. They enjoyed walleye fishing trips to Brace Lake in Ontario with Nancy and Phil, flying into the campsite in a small charter plane with coolers for seats. Later, their travels became "Grandpa Bob and Grandma Mary" road trips, one grandkid at a time since there was never room in the car for two, complete with breakfast with the presidents in the Black Hills of South Dakota. During those trips, they taught the grandkids poker, playing for Tootsie Rolls instead of chips.

Bob enjoyed building airplanes, both experimental and model, including a Mitchell Wing ultralight plane that he built with his brother John. His model airplane hobby, along with golf, was the reason he mowed so many open acres at "The Farm." He also built his house, first designing it using ten-dollar architecture software, then carving a space into the side of a hill with his Bobcat and continuing the build with help from his brother-in-law, Phil. A few years earlier, Bob and Mary helped Phil and his wife Nancy (Bob's sister) build their house in Viola from the ground up. The family likes to joke he used it as practice before tackling his own.

One of many examples of his engineering mind: When brother John needed a way to pre-heat the diesel tractor, Bob did what he always did: researched, conceptualized, procured parts needed, built a proof-of-concept mock-up, and then tested it with John. Because the tractor was parked outside of Wi-Fi range, it couldn't use commercial remote starts, so Bob came up with a way to turn on power to John's entire shed using an app and hardware that was in the cabin's Wi-Fi range. It worked flawlessly, and John still thinks of Bob every time he switches it on from his phone. No more long trudges in deep snow from the road to the cabin, waiting for the tractor to heat up.

Another fun and practical invention: his in-house mailbox alarm, set to light up and play Tchaikovsky's "Swan Lake" when the mailbox door is opened, is how the family knows when the mail carrier has visited the box at the end of a very long driveway (about one-third mile away). He also knew what to do when heavy rain threatened to wash out that same driveway. That driveway also made good use of an extra-long "Pietsch goodbye" wave, with Bob, Mary, and Molly standing on the hill, waving until guests beep-beep from the road as they head home.

He knew exactly which peppers to grow, along with which tomatoes were worth the garden space (only the Juliets, in his book). He and Mary planted apple trees years ago, which later provided a self-serve fall treat for the family dog, Molly. At Halloween, he used a drill to carve his pumpkin.

Bob took meticulous notes (he and Mary even kept spreadsheets of their fishing trips) and was always prepared with a few index cards and a mechanical pencil tucked in his t-shirt pocket.

Bob had an ear for sound and tinkered with audio equipment. A favorite wake-up song was "Pushin' Too Hard" by The Seeds, and he made sure his musical taste would be carried on by passing his vintage record collection on to his grandson, Gavin.

Bob bought his daughter, Michelle, ice skates every winter and her first fishing pole as a kid. Later, he taught her to use his table saw and drill press, and the two of them built a Little Free Library together, a project Michelle counts among her favorite memories with him (mourning doves now use it as a nesting platform every spring, an unplanned bonus he would have loved). The grandkids remember the fixed-up go-kart and practical jokes with the fart machine. They also remember the way he answered the telephone, and imitated his distinct "hello" when picking up calls from him. His answering machine message is the reason everyone remembers Bob and Mary’s landline number.

His siblings have their own favorite memories of growing up with Bob, too. There was the time he and Kris unraveled garden hoses to flood the sledding hill at the house on Sherman Road, an idea their parents did not appreciate nearly as much as the kids did. There was the day he convinced Kris to take her turn on the go-kart, only revealing afterward that he'd quietly cranked the motor faster first; Nancy, too, experienced the full-throttle race around the circular drive. He picked out the tallest, fullest “church tree” to fill the space in the family’s high-ceilinged living room, where they would lean over the balcony above and blow strands of tinsel down onto the branches below. Bob taught Kris how to drive the "Baby Deer" tractor at their parents’ farm and helped John dig open the natural spring with the rest of the Pietsch kids, all of them thoroughly, muddily impressed with their own handiwork.

To his siblings, Bob was always the family's "go-to guy"; if you needed an answer or something invented, you asked Bob. He called Kris "Krispie," and had a knack for cheerfully mangling the Spanish language (to this day, Bette still calls a quesadilla a "queasy dill-uh").

Bob enjoyed a good ham sandwich on white bread, made with deli ham, American cheese, and a slice of raw onion he started from seed and harvested from their garden. Importantly, the bread came from loaves he made at home with carefully measured ingredients in his fancy bread machine, the slices slathered with Mary's special butter recipe. He washed it down with a Diet Coke (never Pepsi), always icy cold and served in his favorite plastic glass that lived in the freezer. He had a strong dislike for cilantro thanks to the gene that makes it taste like soap, but never turned down a chocolate chip cookie warm from the oven.

His favorite poem was "Jabberwocky," fitting, given his smart and silly sense of humor and the theme of his valedictorian speech at Slinger High School (Michelle can still recite it on request). He shared a love of British TV comedy with his dad, much to his mother's exasperation, and could still bring John to tears laughing over a Monty Python sketch decades later. Bob is the reason Michelle and Gavin can recite lines from "Monty Python and the Holy Grail." He never missed an episode of TMZ.

He never once wore shorts, preferring comfortable jeans, a pocket t-shirt, and a navy-blue, zippered Dickies quilted jacket (known to the world as a barn jacket and to the grandkids as "the Grandpa Bob jacket"). It turns out the jacket ran in the family: his dad and his brother-in-law Phil were just as devoted to their "dinner jackets," as were his son-in-law, Matthew, and his grandkids.

After his dad passed, Bob, Mary, and his brother John made sure their mother, Arlene, could stay on the farm she loved, even helping her start and run a successful bed and breakfast there for years. Together, they saw her through to her final years, a gift the whole family remains grateful for.

Like his mother, Bob believed strongly in organ donation and hoped others would consider doing the same. He gave the gift of sight through cornea donation, via the Lions Eye Bank of Wisconsin, a program his brother-in-law Larry knows well as he is a member of the Lions Club and a recipient of a donor’s kindness.

Bob was a serious thinker and a genuinely curious person. He was also a good conversationalist and people liked being around him.

Bob was, above everything, a gentleman: kind, attentive, and generous. He will be very, very much missed.

Bob is survived by his loving partner of 53 years, Mary Schloemer, and their good dog, Molly; daughter Michelle Pietsch and husband Matthew McManus; grandchildren Gavin and Margaret McManus; siblings Kristine Krenn and husband Lawrence, Nancy Souders and husband Philip, Karen Alt, John Pietsch and wife Debra, and Bette Pietsch Eckman and husband Jerald; immediate nieces and nephews Chandra Krenn, Ryan Krenn and wife Amy, Deanna Gates (née Souders) and husband Timothy, and Steven Souders and wife Lauren; and Mary's siblings and their spouses, Jane and Robert Clare, Peter and Patricia Schloemer, and John and Nancy Schloemer. He leaves behind additional extended family, friends, and good neighbors.

Bob was preceded in death by his parents; his grandparents, Rudolph and Alma (Wolf) Pietsch, Jeanette “Nellie” (Beischer) Richter, and Kurt Richter; his beloved aunt and uncle, Wilma (Pietsch) and Eldred Bernitt; and Mary's brother, Paul Schloemer.

Mary and Michelle would like to thank the staff at Vernon Health Hospital for their kindness and excellent coordination of care. They would also like to thank the staff of Agrace Hospice Care, especially Jodi and Elizabeth, for their gentle compassion in caring not only for Bob, but for the family as well.

The family will hold a private dinner to celebrate his life. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to Bethel Butikk Food Pantry in Westby, Wisconsin.

Online condolences may be expressed at vossfh.com.

Vosseteig-Larson Funeral Home is serving Robert’s family.

123 W Decker St

Viroqua, WI 54665