Robert R. Payne

My thoughts and prayers are with you Kathy, Carla and David. Your Dad was a great guy! Jamie Conom

So very saddened, uncle Bob was one of the most positive people that I know.....

Many thoughts and prayers of strength and peace to you all. I have many fond memories,from my childhood, of Bob and living on Greenway Trail. Such a kind hearted person. Our grandparents lived states away and he and Harriet felt like our Wisconsin Grandparents. Love and our condolences, The Behm Family (Gina Blair)

Bob Payne was an early Pioneer of the Cellular phone business in Madison Wisconsin. Bob was hired in the late 80's by Gary Waldhart, the President of Auto Marketing Inc., now known as AMS. Bob very quickly assumed a leadership role and was directly responsible for the growth and success of AMS as one of the larger independent dealers of Mobile telephone services in the market. He and Gary were very successful in the sale of larger corporate accounts and saved many businesses a lot of money. He was also a visible fixture in the store and welcomed many customers onto the retail show floor. The customers enjoyed Bob very much and appreciated his good sense of humor. Bob retired from the business in 2000. Paul Nachreiner President AMS

I was sad to hear of Bob’s passing. I’ve known him as early as I have memories. When I was 6, he would tell us to stop playing in his garden. But before we would go, he would offer a fresh tomato, right off the vine, before we went. I remember telling him I didn’t like vegetables. He said “Don’t you know this is a fruit?!” That was when I had my first fresh garden tomato. We would rave about these tomatoes. And a year later when we moved, Bob offered to lend us his tiller so we could start a garden of our own. That continued for years. My dad and I would make an annual trip over to his house, Bob would have the riding mower ready on the driveway, and we would ride the mower all the way home to our garden. Years later, we moved 25 minutes away, Bob came out to visit the new property. He noticed we didn’t have a garden yet. So, Bob lent us his tiller once again. This year I planted my first garden. I thought about how nice it would be to have a tiller. I thought about Bob. Then I remembered those amazing tomatoes. I told my 8 yr old son about them. But he reminded me that he didn’t like tomatoes. Later that summer he tried one of the first ones from our garden and said “that doesn’t taste like fruit”. I thought “well, not everybody is lucky enough to grow up next to Bob Payne” Bob-Thank you for always letting me have an Oreo from your cookie jar, for giving me my first ride in a convertible, for helping me buy the coolest cell phone on the AMS floor when I was 16, and for all of the memories in between. You will be missed. And don’t worry, I’ll keep working on my tomatoes. Love, Travis Blair