Robert "Bob" W. Schaller

Robert William Schaller, 83, entered into heavenly rest at home on December 28, 2023, after battling chronic kidney failure. Bob was born to William and Blanche Schaller on April 24, 1940, in Caledonia, Mn., the middle of seven children. He had three older sisters and three younger sisters. He grew up on the family farm outside of Freeburg, Mn, and went to grade school in a one room schoolhouse in Freeburg and then to Caledonia. He liked farming, but not the milking of cows. After leaving school, he enlisted in the Army Reserves and worked at John Deere in Waterloo, Iowa. He started working at Ray Hutson Chevrolet in La Crosse in 1965 doing reconditioning work on used cars, snowplowing and making wrecker calls. That is where he met Bev and they were married in 1966. After moving to the farm on Sand Lake Road in 1972 he was asked by the Pertzsch farm if he could help them out with farm work. When Don Pertzsch was satisfied that Bob would do it the way he wanted it, he gave him free rein. Sometimes Bob would be out in those fields at 2 AM with the tractor lights on being in his happy place. In the spring of 1980, he started working at G. Heileman Brewery while at the same time working at Ray Hutsons for 6 months until he got into the union at the brewery. At Heilemans he worked on the production lines in the keg room, warehouse and bottlehouse also while sub school bus driving for the Holmen School District. He worked at Heilemans until the very day it closed. He was given the option of early retirement which he took and they sent him to Small Engine Repair School at the Winona Mn. Technical College. After completing that, he started Bob's Small Engine Repair at home working out of what used to be a milk house and big dairy barn. He repaired lawnmowers of all kinds, snowblowers, power washers, tillers, generators, etc. and filled that big barn in no time. His first customer came the first day and they never stopped coming. Besides his own business he worked part time at PTM in maintenance until he just didn't have any more time. He did find time though to remodel a lot of the old brick farmhouse and managed to keep up on the ten hours of lawn mowing weekly. Because he worked third shift at the brewery, he was always able to attend all of the kids activities and was home when they were home. It was hard for him to take himself away from everything at home, but he always managed to fit in trips to watch the grandkids activities and go family camping to Spook Cave, Monona, Iowa, in August and go RVing out West in September. Bob never had many hobbies (just work and family), but he did love to do jigsaw puzzles. Later he took up reading.

He is survived by his wife of over 57 years, his daughter and son-in-law Kristi & Jon Kaiser and their children, Sage and Jaden Kaiser of Waukesha, Wi., his son and daughter-in-law Kurt and Rhonda Schaller and their children Savannah and Austin Schaller of McGregor, Iowa, four sisters Gwen Schaller of Spring Grove, Mn., Connie Ranzenberger of Caledonia, Mn, Jean Gran of Reno, Mn., and Shirley Richards (Tom) of New Albin, Iowa; sister-in-law, Lee Ann Lindahl (Tom) of Platteville, Wi., his dog Reign and lots of nephews and nieces.

He was preceded in death by his mother and father, two sisters Jackie Rask and Ila Schaller, his paternal and maternal grand parents, four brothers-in­-law, Donald Rask, David Ranzenberger, Arlin Gran and Russell Snowberry; his mother and father-in-law, Rachel and Donald Snowberry; and a nephew, Danny Gran. He was also preceded by his faithful dog, Cruz and many other Shelties; and Max the cat.

A memorial service will be held at 12:00 pm on Sunday, January 7, 2024, at Schumacher-Kish Funeral and Cremation Services of Onalaska, 907 Sand Lake Rd., Onalaska, WI 54650. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service. There will be a luncheon held at the Onalaska American Legion immediately following the memorial service. Interment will take place at Oak Grove Cemetery in Tomah, WI.

In lieu of flowers, memorials are preferred. A donation in Bob’s honor can be made to an organization of the donor’s choice.