Remembering Bob Rusch
I first got to know Bob Rusch more than 25 years ago.
I was covering sports at the time and Bob had completed a 100-mile race in Kettle Moraine. Ultra-marathons were not as well known then and I sat down with Bob for a lengthy interview with the primary question in my mind being why would anyone want to put themselves through that.
The story stands out in my mind because it is the sole time in my career as a journalist that I have felt justified in quoting someone referencing it being like the Bataan Death March. Proper use of that reference was something that was beaten into those in my journalism classes at college.
The ultramarathon story was just one of many interviews I have done with Bob over the years including him running his 100th marathon, cross country skiing, snowshoeing, his work on the Ice Age Trail, a map he and his brother, Tom, created of all the railroad lines that ran in the county, or the history of the community of Rib Lake.
Bob was one of those involved in getting the Pine Line Rail Trail from a dream to a reality. With how much use the trail gets throughout the year, it is hard to imagine not having it. He was also one of the founders of the race that would become the annual Pine Line Marathon. He was always ready with some tidbit of information about how things came together.
Most recently, I had spent an afternoon with him at the Rib Lake village hall as he walked me through the photos and displays showing the height of the Rib Lake Lumber Company and how the village of Rib Lake is still shaped by it. Anyone visiting Rib Lake should take time to stop in at village hall and check out the displays, they are eye opening.
When I first met Bob, he and his brother were practicing attorneys with an office just down the hill from the courthouse. He once showed me the certificate he had gotten for arguing a case before the State Supreme Court and with little prompting could talk at length about curtilage and the need for proper search warrants to collect evidence from this area of a property.
It was with shock, disbelief and profound sadness that I saw a post from his daughter on Monday morning announcing that Bob had died. Another one of Taylor County’s titans had fallen.
A once robust and athletic man, he had grown frail in recent years as age and medical conditions caught up with him. While he may not have been physically in his prime, mentally he retained a sharpness that was extraordinary and a keen interest in happenings at the local, state and national levels.
He understood the realities of getting things done and through his years of doing criminal defense work, didn’t maintain many illusions of the world being filled with sunshine and butterflies.
That did not discourage him from having hope for the future. I imagine it was this underlying optimism that led to his strong conservation efforts and ensuring that his family’s property and the trails he lovingly built remained open and available for generations to come.
I would talk to him and remember the adage that a society grows great when old men plant trees under whose shade they will never sit. In one way or another, Bob never stopped planting trees.
I remember being a young man and talking with him. He shared the story of birthday parties his friends held for him a decade apart and how very few from the earlier were at the latter. Like a burr stuck to a sock, his comment is something that has stuck with me over the years.
As with anyone, Bob had his faults and his detractors. It is impossible to move through life without either.
One of the things I enjoy most about my job is getting to know people like Bob and others like him. The individuals who leave outsized impressions on their communities and whose impact will be felt for years to come. I am sad to see Bob’s passing, but I was glad I got an opportunity to know him.
Brian Wilson is News Editor at The Star News. Contact Brian at BrianWilson@centralwinews.com.
