In praise of 'Dr. Bobbert'
State-renowned Parkersburg-born historian Dr. Robert Neymeyer takes a victory stroll
WATERLOO — Dr. Robert “Bob” Neymeyer has maybe a tenth of the recognition he deserves. Scratch that. A hundredth.
He got a little bit of recognition this past week — with a few whoops and hollers someone in his profession may not be accustomed to receiving.
I contributed to the whoops.
The state-renowned historian at Waterloo’s Grout Museum District and instructor at the University of Northern Iowa was one of the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier’s “Eight over 80” honorees. It’s a recognition the paper gives annually to outstanding individuals for lifetime contributions to the community and beyond.
The honorees were feted at a luncheon and the Diamond Events Center at Western Home Communities in Cedar Falls.
Bob received a big chunk of recognition a few years back, when he received the William J. Petersen and Edgar R. Harlan Lifetime Achievement Award from the State Historical Society of Iowa. The award was presented by then-Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg at the Iowa State Capitol.
This past week’s recognition was different, however. The event was played out before a hometown crowd. Many folks who care about Bob were not going to let him go gently, or quietly, into that good luncheon.
He had a cheering section turn out — a large contingent of family and current and former co-workers and friends.
His former boss, who hired him and nominated him for Eight over 80 recognition, retired Grout Museum District executive director Billie Bailey, saw to that.
Folks turned out in force. Also nominating him was Cedar Falls teacher Kelly Sullivan, granddaughter and grandniece of the Sullivan brothers and U.S. Navy sponsor of their namesake destroyer.
Hiring Bob, or “Bobbert” or “Dr. Bobbert” as he’s affectionately known to several of his longtime Grout work colleagues, was a master stroke for Billie Bailey. The museum was on the cusp of the biggest expansion in its history, building the $11.5 million Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans Museum. It’s named for the five Waterloo brothers who died together during World War II but dedicated to all Iowans who served their nation in uniform and on the home ftont.
Bob spearheaded the Grout’s “Voices of Iowa” oral history project, conducting video-recorded oral histories of Iowa military veterans. Later the project was expanded to farm interviews, local Cedar Valley area history and most recently the Black Stories Collective oral history project, telling the story of pathfinders and trailblazers with Waterloo’s sizable Black community.
To date the museum district has conducted more than 2,300 of those inteviews, one of the largest collections in one place anywhere. They are first-person accounts of folks who were participants in and witnesses to history, preserved for posterity.
That’s especially important as years go by. Many of the early interview subjects were World War II veterans and have passed away. But their interviews remain as fresh and vibrant as the day they told them, for future generations to see, hear, learn from and enjoy, with all the emotional impact of what they did and saw.
Interviews subjects receive a copy of the interview. They become keepsakes; many families have used them at funeral visitations. Grout staff recently produced a documentary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy in World War II, using interviews with 10 different veterans of that battle, all now deceased. That documentary would not have been possible without the interviews Bob did, or other staff did under his direction, which provided the bedrock of that presentation.
In all of this, and more, such as providing valuable research, writing and narration for the museum’s various exhibits and events, Bob Neymeyer has been among the steadiest of steady hands that have made the Grout Museum District a community asset in the Cedar Valley and the Sullivan Brothers Iowa Veterans museum a state-renowned repository of memories of those who sacrificed so much of their yesterdays for our present and future.
And Bob’s museum work is just the capstone of a life and career that included bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Iowa in Iowa City, service in the Peace Corps for many years, his own book publishing business and community contributions and service to his hometown in Parkersburg — including surviving that community’s devasting tornado in 2008.
I’m blessed to be riding on the caboose of Bob’s train. We frequently worked in tandem on veteran interviews when I was a reporter for the Courier. I did feature stories for the paper while Bob rolled the camera for the museum. Now, for the past seven years, we have been work colleagues.
Working with Bob reminds me of an Honor Flight I made with local military veterans to see memorials in Washington, D.C. a few years ago.
I was the “guardian” or escort for an Army veteran who had lost a dear school friend in Vietnam. He wanted to get a rubbing of his buddy’s name off the Vietnam Veterans Memorial wall. Unfortunately, his buddy’s name was on one of the highest parts of one of the tallest panels in the wall. Neither of us could reach it.
A family from Washington state passed by — a couple with young childen. The husband and father asked if he could help us.
I told him our predicament, and then I noticed he was built like a football linebacker with broad shoulders. And I’m built more like a hobbit than a linebacker.
I said, “How about if I jump up on your shoulders and get that name up there?”
“Hop on,” he said. I got on his shoulders and got the rubbing.
The veteran was delighted.
“I gotta get a picture of this!” he said.
“Yeah and you’re getting my good side,” I deadpanned back, knowing he was shooting me from the rear.
Well, that’s what working with Bob has been like. I hopped on some really strong shoulders.
And hopefully I didn’t show him too much of my “good side” in the process.
Congratulations Bob. And thank you. It has been and continues to be an honor working with you, sir.
As my father said a Norwegian fellow construction crew worker once told him, “We be friends a long time yet.”
Pat Kinney is a freelance writer and former longtime news staffer with the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier and, prior to that, several years at the Ames Tribune. He is currently an oral historian with the Grout Museum District in Waterloo. His “View from the Cedar Valley” column is part of “Iowa Writers Collaborative,” a collection of news and opinion writers from around the state who previously and currently work with a host of Iowa newspapers, news organizations and other publications. They are listed here. Clink on their individual links to check them out, subscribe for free - and, if you believe in the value of quality journalism, please support this column and/or any of theirs with a paid subscription. Thank you.