Robert Byrne

Robert Joseph Patrick Byrne was born on July 24, 1931 to Donald and Marie Byrne in LaPorte, Indiana. He joined a family that already included his sister, Mary Ellen, with whom he always had a special bond. Over the years, Don and Marie’s family grew to also include Margaret, Patty, Bill, Rose Marie, Don, Pat, Jim, and Kate, and Bob bonded with each of them in his own special way. Sadly, Bob’s sister Patty did not survive to adulthood.

As each of his siblings chose their spouses, Bob grew to love Don Wozniak, Joe Geglio, Joyce Byrne, Monica Byrne, Jerry DeBoer, Sandy Byrne (frequently referred to as Don’s Sandy), Ron Niederhouse, Marlene Byrne, Sandy Byrne (frequently referred to as Jim’s Sandy), and Bill Cavelli. The years that followed also brought a virtual explosion of nieces and nephews, each of whom Bob loved dearly.

It’s time to back track a bit and look at Bob’s early years. He skipped kindergarten and fourth grade because he was a smart, young whippersnapper who loved learning. Despite many pleadings urgently made to Grandma Byrne to tell Bob’s kids about some of the naughty things that Bob did when he was a kid, Grandma Byrne, a schoolteacher, refused to spill the beans. She always told us, “You don’t tell tales out of school.” Similar pleadings made to Grandpa Byrne, the storyteller-in-chief, almost met with success, but Grandma Byrne always jumped in and reminded Grandpa that he shouldn’t tell tales out of school either. Foiled again!

We do know that Don and Marie and their brood moved to Grand Rapids where Bob started his junior year at Grand Rapids Catholic Central. Bob became friends with Jack Dark, Ron Spielmaker, and John Farmer, and those friendships lasted throughout Bob’s life. After graduation from CC (no, not the community college) in 1948, Bob went on to earn a bachelor’s degree from DePaul University in 1952.

Bob went to a YMCA dance at the Rowe Hotel with some friends in 1951 and spied a lovely brunette in the crowd. (The musical accompaniment playing in our minds here is the song “Matchmaker” from Fiddler on the Roof.) He somehow managed to introduce himself to her and immediately fell totally and completely in love with Helen Wysocki. When Bob proposed to Helen in 1952, he gave her a silver dollar and told her that she would always have at least a dollar to her name no matter what happened to them in the future. Head over heels in love, Bob finished his senior year at DePaul, returned to Grand Rapids, got a job at Wurzburg’s Department Store, and married Helen. June 20, 1953, their wedding day, was one of the hottest days in Grand Rapids history with a record high temperature of 102 degrees. Maid of honor, Dee Dennis Teska, fainted during the wedding ceremony (no air conditioning in churches in those days), but quickly recovered and was able to participate in the reception that was held at the Guest House on Stocking NW. Bob’s best man was Jack Dark.

Bob and Helen started their married life in an apartment on Milwaukee Ave NW across the street from Helen’s parents in Grand Rapids. Over the next thirteen years, their family grew to include their children Ann, Don, Kevin, Mary, Ken, John, Jan, and Peter. After working for Wurzburgh’s for a few years, Bob joined Helena Rubinstein, a cosmetics and perfume company, as a sales representative calling on drug and department stores all over the state. Around the time Kevin was born in 1956, Bob and Helen moved to their first house on Jerome Street in Grand Rapids.

In about 1964, Bob and Helen moved from Jerome Street to a house on Lafayette Street in Grand Rapids that was right behind St. Francis Xavier Church. Not only did Bob acquire a new address, he also began his career with Old Kent Bank as a management trainee and assistant manager of the branch bank at 3000 Eastern. A series of promotions to branch manager and vice president and transfers to different branches followed over the years.

By the time his oldest children were students at Grand Rapids Catholic Central in 1969, Bob took a position in branch administration with Old Kent with an office in the Old Kent Building downtown. Bob drove Ann and Don over to CCHS each morning, stopping to pick up Joe Taylor around the corner on Griggs Street. They made the trip from Lafayette to Sheldon Avenue in about 5 minutes each day while listening to WOOD Radio. (Bob had great respect for the law, but thought speed limits were useless when he had to be somewhere by a certain time.)

If the Molesta Floral advertisement (call Cherry 5-1165) came on the radio before the 8 am news and before we got to Sheldon Avenue, we knew we were in trouble and might be late getting to school. That NEVER happened. If Ann or Don dawdled and didn’t get into their seat in the 1.5 minutes after Bob dropped them off, then that was their problem and they would serve the detention for tardiness.

Bob loved to go for drives. The drives out to Mary Ellen and Don Wozniak’s house were always especially memorable. Bob would load the family up into the car and cruise down Egypt Valley Road at speeds that seemed faster than a speeding bullet so we could experience “weightlessness” as the car became a bit airborne. (This was during the space race years.) Remember, there were no seat belts in cars in those days and babies rode in their mother’s laps because no one even thought of using a car seat or a booster seat for young children. Other memorable drives at significantly lower speeds included traveling through East Grand Rapids to view the Christmas light displays, trucking out to Lake Michigan, stopping at Jersey Junction on a hot summer day for an ice cream cone, or the highly favored trip to Jack Dark’s cottage on Myers Lake, where many cans of Hamm’s beer were drunk by Bob and Jack as they worked on priming or fixing the cottage’s well pump. That pump house was Bob’s original man cave.

The construction of the US 131 and I-196 expressways conveniently suited Bob’s need for speed and enabled his next move of his family to Jenison in the summer of 1971. At that time, I-196 ended in Jenison, which necessarily meant that Jenison was the end of the world as we knew it. Ann and Don continued to attend Catholic Central, and the daily trips from Lilac Drive in Jenison to CCHS extended to 15 minutes’ duration due to the 55 mph expressway speed limit and the increased distance. When Bob wasn’t driving or working, or raising his family, he made the time to serve on the Georgetown Township zoning board, belonged to the Lions Club, and later joined the Golden Ks. He firmly believed in giving back to his community and in civic responsibility - values he shared with his children.

Faith has always been a pivotal part of Bob’s life. From St. Alphonsus to St. Adalbert’s (now the Basilica), to St. Francis Xavier to St. Pius X, Bob was always involved in parish life and supported the Church. When he moved to Jenison, he and Helen became founding members of Holy Redeemer Parish, and Bob served on the committees that organized the parish and built the church. As always, his timing was excellent because Ann and Tim were the second couple to be married at Holy Redeemer and their wedding was the first wedding involving parishioners. (The first couple married at Holy Redeemer were not parishioners or from a family of parishioners.) Bob and Helen gave each of their children the gift of faith and took great delight in the fact that their children have carried on the family tradition of involvement, service, and support of the kids’ respective churches. In addition, Bob supported many charitable organizations and endeavors.

Providing for a family of ten, Bob and Helen knew how to stretch their dollars. They bought the unsold meat remaining in Fred’s Trading Post’s meat counter at the end of the day for 29 cents a pound. Some times we got 100 pounds of stuffed ground beef rolls. Other times we got 50 pounds of city chicken and 50 pounds of hot dogs and sausages. One very special time, we got 100 pounds of steaks. That was a delight! Trips to the day-old bread store were routine, and Joppee’s Dairy delivered milk to the house in returnable glass containers. The milkman didn’t need a cell phone or a computer. He knew how much milk you needed by the number of rinsed containers in the milk box. Hand-me-down play clothes and school uniforms helped stretched the budget, too. When it came to shoes, each kid got one brand new pair when needed because feet could be ruined by shoes that didn’t fit well.

Many Sunday mornings after Mass, Bob cooked breakfast for the family. One of his breakfast specialties was scrambled eggs with varying condiments, like 1000 Island dressing. One time, his scrambled eggs were actually green and were served with ham! While undertaking his chef duties, Bob loved to listen to music and play maestro. Tunes like “Grandma’s Feather Bed” sung by John Denver, the Great Gates of Kiev, the Grand Canyon Suite, and Cracklin’ Rosie by Neil Diamond were often heard blaring from the stereo as Bob cracked the eggs. He was especially fond of Topol’s singing “Sunrise, Sunset” in the role Tevya from Fiddler on the Roof.

Speaking of cell phones and computers, Bob was technologically proficient. He had a cell phone and he even managed to carry it with him . . . most of the time. Bob had a special affinity when it came to computers. He piled his kids into the car one Saturday in the 1960s and took them on a tour of Old Kent’s new computer center on Leonard and Monroe. When personal computers became available, he got one. He had a digital camera and loved to take pictures. He enjoyed playing games from CDs that he loaded on to his computer. He thought e-mail was great and keep up correspondence with friends using that tool. He loved online banking, the Weather Channel online, and followed the news online, too. He kept his Grand Rapids Press online and print subscriptions to the very end! He even had a Facebook page, but he insisted on calling it Faceplate. For Father’s Day one year, his kids all chipped in and got him a technology upgrade that included a new blazingly fast computer, an all-in-one color printer, an upgraded wireless internet connection, and remote tech support when needed from Ann. Bob worked on his computer every day with the usual love/hate relationship that we all have with our various devices.

Once again we’ve gotten a bit ahead of ourselves. Bob instilled his love of reading in his kids. Each kid got a library card and was strongly encouraged to borrow books from the library. Bob read every day of his life and easily adapted to his Kindle, which he often carried with him, preferring it over his cell phone. He made certain that each kid had the opportunity to attend college and insisted that each kid attend college for at least a semester. Many got degrees and some even obtained advanced degrees, which pleased him to no end.

By 1992, most of his kids were through college and all had jobs. Bob decided it was time for another career change for him. He retired from the Bank and announced that Helen was retiring right along with him. They sold the house in Jenison and bought a condo off the East Beltline and Leonard. They moved to Sun City, Arizona in 1997 where he played golf (a game he dearly loved), made more friends and enjoyed retired life. He also grew a beard and relished exploring the sights and sounds of the western United States.

Bob and Helen moved back to Grand Rapids in 2004. In 2006, Bob had his aortic heart valve replaced for a second time and had his mitral valve repaired. (The first aortic valve replacement took place in Sun City.) He almost died from complications due to the surgery, but God had other plans for Bob. He recovered and recognized that every day he lived after that surgery was a gift.

Although he didn’t like the low salt diet and the fluid restrictions, he did his best to comply . . . when it suited his fancy. Gradually over the next six years, the congestive heart failure slowed him down and lead to frequent hospitalizations. Serious chronic back pain also plagued Bob and made daily living something of a challenge. Bob didn’t want to accept those limitations and fought hard to make it to the next grandbaby’s birth, the next great grandchild’s birth, the next wedding, the next family reunion, and way too many funerals along the way. As he told his many health care providers, “I still have a lot to live for and I still want to be part of the action!”

Bob was planning to attend his great grandson Cooper’s baptism in early April, but a hospitalization for pneumonia precluded that trip to Lake Orion. He was working on plans to attend his granddaughter Annie’s upcoming June 15th wedding, but God again intervened in Bob’s life. He died peacefully at home beside the love of his life, Helen, at 1:24 AM on May 7, 2012. Eternal rest grant unto him Oh Lord. And let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and all the souls of the faithful departed rest in peace. Amen.

Bob’s story doesn’t end with his death. He lives on in each of us, and his legacy is one of commitment. Commitment to God, commitment to Helen, and commitment to his siblings, to his children, to his grandchildren, and to his great grandchildren. His life exemplifies the theological virtues - faith, hope and love. And we all know, the greatest of these is love.