Robert Arvo Zelm

To the family of our neighbor Robert Zelm we offer our sincere condolences. We miss Bob. He was a man of great resilience and intellect, and for the past fifteen years he shared the ins and outs of daily life with us as a neighbor whose yard was adjacent to ours. He inspired me to garden and taught me how, shared the bounty of his own extraordinary garden with our family, went on many grocery-shopping trips with my son and me (where we mulled over the price of a can of tomatoes at, say, one store as opposed to another), and despite being a person who described himself as not good with children attended many birthday parties for my son in our back yard over the years, always showing up with an old-school, perfect gift. He was a significant and positive part of my son's formative years. Bob was remarkably forthcoming about his early-life traumas involving having polio and how they had affected him, even in terms of how his social skills had been affected, and when he felt he'd said the wrong thing or been too rash about something he apologized immediately. I admired that deeply. He was a loving man. One day several years into my friendship with him he brought out photos of his beloved Darlene who had died of cancer the year before we met Bob. He showed me the photos and told me of his love and companionship with her. Throughout the past decade and a half he always rode her bicycle to run his errands, even for ones that were across town. He was a very self-sufficient man. We are fortunate to have shared the last years of his life with him and are richer for having known him. We miss him very much.

Condolences to Robert’s family. We were very sorry to hear of Robert’s passing. Robert was a nice and interesting man, and we enjoyed getting to know him in our 4 years that we were neighbors with him. - Ty and Jordan Neises

I'm sorry for y/our loss of Bob Zelm. I knew him when we lived at the rooming house of Max Croner, at 424 West Mifflin St. In 1969 my mother died, so with more furniture, I moved to a third floor Apt. in the 500 block of West Mifflin, and Bob took my room in Max' house in the front. He was there when the police rioted, shooting rifle grenades of tear gas into the two floors of every house on West Mifflin St. The one into Bob's room exploded next to his mattress, and he came out front to express anger, but the cops told him to get back in the house. I watched the police shooting grenades into every house on Mifflin St, and went to visit Max next day. Max said "We have the Gestapo again!". Bob told me what he experienced, and I offered him to move into my apartment. We were there when the Sterling Hall bomb went off with a BOOM! one Sunday morning and we heard the sirens. The man killed at Sterling Hall was a friend of Max' daughter, Vera Croner. I don't know if Darlene was with Bob at this time. I left in fall of 1970 for Bloomington, IN for graduate work, and left my apartment with Bob. I will donate to Alzheimer Association, in memory of Bob. Bruce Christoffersen 5309 Groveland Terrace Madison, WI 53716