Bob Alton Schuknecht
May 09, 1935 - February 25, 2023
Obituary
WAUNAKEE - Bob Alton Schuknecht died on Saturday, February 25, 2023, at the Sauk Prairie Hospital, Prairie du Sac, WI. Bob (not Robert) was born on May 9, 1935, in the Town of Troy, Sauk Co., WI, the sixth of seven children born to Alvin L. and Edna (Leudtke) Schuknecht. Uncle Karl’s journal for that day contained a single entry - “Bob is Born!”
When Bob was in the sixth grade his family moved to a big old house on Water Street in Prairie du Sac. If Bob’s many stories involving dynamite, swimming and fishing around the dam, stealing watermelons, and other youthful antics, can be believed, it is a wonder Bob survived his childhood. He graduated from high school in 1953 then served in the U.S. Army from 1954 to 1956 as a medical technician running a blood bank. He attended the University of Wisconsin - Madison on the GI Bill, graduating in 1960 with a BS in Zoology. It was at the UW where he met Patricia Ann Gottschall who he married in 1957. They moved into the Robertson house halfway between Lodi and Prairie du Sac on Highway 60. By 1960 the family had grown to include three children. While going to school, he also tended bar at Sunset Lanes, later Club Sunset, for the Chrislaws/Martins, as well as farming with his aging father-in-law, Herbert Harvey Gottschall. By the time Bob had a full-time job in Madison at the State Lab of Hygiene, he was also farming full-time. In 1968, the family moved to the tenant house on Pine Crest Farm, Chrislaw Road, Lodi, vacated by Ralph and Vera Chrislaw, to better handle this full workload.
Bob always said there was no better place on earth than Pine Crest Farm; there was no place he would rather be. There on the farm he could not only enjoy his passion for hunting, fishing, conservation, and gardening, but share these activities and resources with family, and friends who became family. Pine Crest was the site of innumerable picnics, corn boils, and family reunions. Bob and Patti hosted the 100th Anniversary of the First Steel Picnic in 1973 and beginning in 2018, the farm became the site for a number of weddings. In 1992, the Wildlife Habitat Development Award for private land was presented to the Schuknechts by the Columbia County Land Conservation Committee. Another proud achievement was fulfilling the dream of his mother-in-law, Grace Sylvia Chrislaw Gottschall, by creating a 25-acre lake (Lake Grace) out of the 5-acre pond.
After 36 years with the State Lab, Bob retired from the position of Chemist Supervisor. He told all who cared to listen that he never regretted for a minute retiring when he did. He took up daily crossword puzzles and making cookies, becoming known in the neighborhood as the cookie man delivering cookies to road crews, meals-on-wheels customers, and anyone dropping in for a visit. The doors at Pine Crest were always open.
In 2001 Bob’s daughter, Cherie Ann Schuknecht Haug, died of cancer at the age of 42. Shortly after, Bob himself nearly died of pancreatitis. Returning from the hospital he gave up life-long habits of drinking and smoking, cold turkey.
Vision and hearing loss as well as chronic lower back/hip pain prevented Bob from enjoying his life’s passions in the later years of his life. As recently as a few years ago, however, he was still able to call turkeys for his son and grandson. Bob’s children, with the support of devoted friends and neighbors, enabled Bob to remain on his beloved Pine Crest Farm until August of 2022 when he and Patti moved to Home Again Assisted Living in Waunakee where he received kind and excellent care - and an occasional beer. One of his last comments to his daughter was a complaint that the hospital would not serve him a beer.
Bob is survived by his wife of more than 65 years, Patricia Ann (Gottschall) Schuknecht of Waunakee, WI; his children, Schoen Allon and Patricia Ann (Stevens) Schuknecht, of Hudson, WI; Shelagh Beth (Schuknecht) and Stephen Douglas Munroe of St. Albans, VT; his son-in-law, Glenn Haug of Grenora, ND; his grandchildren Derek and Theresa (Norell) Schuknecht of Hudson, WI, and their children Cole and Lacey; Tara (Schuknecht) and Devin Maier of Waunakee, WI, and their children Wesley and Cameron; Grady and Teryn (Buchanan) Munroe of Madison, WI; and Ceilidh Munroe of St. Albans, VT. He is further survived by his sisters, Betty Marlene (Schuknecht) Pegram of Greensboro, NC; Carol Lavon (Schuknecht) Deneen of Stoughton, WI; and many nieces and nephews.
Friends and family of Bob Schuknecht are invited to an event to celebrate his life on Sunday, June 11, 2023, from 1:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the Waddle Inn, Lodi WI. Memorial gifts may be made to the Lodi Public Library, 130 Lodi St, Lodi, WI 53555 or the MacKenzie Center, W7303 County Hwy CS & Q, Poynette, WI 53955.
Online condolences may be made at www.gundersonfh.com
Gunderson Lodi
Funeral & Cremation Care
157 S. Main St.
(608) 592-3201