Bob Wagenblast, a prominent citizen in The Dalles who was known as a “volunteer’s volunteer,” died at his home Monday, Oct. 6. He was 89.
“He got involved and he helped whenever he could. That’s what was important,” said his daughter, Robin Smith, who was his caregiver since he had a fall in July.
“And when he married his sweetheart they were together 69 years. Until he died, even the day that he finally died, they were holding hands and he was asking her how she was doing. That’s pretty special,” Smith said.
His wife, Shirley, is 88, and still lives in the home they built together in 1950, with Smith as her caregiver.
His service is set for Saturday, Oct. 11 at 11 a.m. at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Viewing visitation is set for Friday at Spencer, Libby & Powell Funeral Home from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.
He’d been a member of the Shriners for over 60 years and was also a longtime member of the Elks and Lions, and served as a volunteer firefighter for 37 years. He was an active member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church and helped deliver Meals on Wheels.
“That made him happy when he was serving other people,” Smith said. “That’s nice to leave that kind of legacy, to like to help other people. And yet, we were never neglected either,” she said of herself and her brother Phil, who lives in New Jersey.
Wagenblast was especially devoted to the Shriners. He would take a food caravan every year from Eastern Oregon and sell tickets to the East-West Shriner football game in Baker.
“He would sell advertising and his goal was to sell $5,000 worth of advertising — himself,” Smith said. He was a born salesman and the joke was he could sell ice to an Eskimo, she said.
“Community events were very important and the service organizations were the way of making sure everybody was safe and taken care of,” Smith said.
Wagenblast was born on the family ranch on Fifteenmile Road, Smith said. His brother Earl died several years ago and his older brother Eldon, now 94, lives at the Oregon Veterans’ Home.
He graduated in 1943 from The Dalles High School and enlisted in the Army Air Corps.
He was stationed in the Pacific and served as a tail gunner on a bomber during World War II, Phil said.
Wagenblast earned a Distinguished Service Cross, the second highest military award that can be given to the member of the United States Army. His family didn’t even know about the award, Smith said, until she recently secured his military papers to get veteran’s benefits for him.
He also enjoyed going to military reunions, Phil said, and did quite a bit of traveling in the last 20 years.
The family owned land on the Deschutes River, and he was an avid steelhead fisherman for most of his life, Phil said.
“He was a real kidder,” Phil said. “Busting chops, as they say.”
Wagenblast married Shirley Martin in 1945, and worked for several of her family’s companies, including the Model Laundry and City Heating Oil, which he eventually took over. In the summer, when the heating oil business was flat, he drove truck for wheat harvest.
Then he began selling real estate after selling the oil business. Finally, he spent some 25 years working for New York Life, where he stayed until he was in his 70s.
Shirley worked as his secretary, and when she bought The Dalles Marble and Granite from a family member, she put her husband to work for her, setting grave stones. She told him, “’I’m paying you what you paid me. Sometimes you’ll get a raise from nothing to nothing and a half,’” Smith recounted.
Phil was in Little League and Boy Scouts, and his dad volunteered in both of those areas, and was also in the PTA.
He was a Scout leader, and one of Phil’s best memories is taking the train to a two-week Boy Scout Jamboree in Colorado Springs, Colo.
Wagenblast was involved in the Wasco County Pioneer Association and the Wasco County Fair. He loved his grandkids and visited them as they were growing up in Australia, where Smith moved and married and had three children. “While we were in Australia my parents came over and he brought a kit and made balloon animals and he went to each of the girls’ classrooms and made balloon animals for the class, because that was something that was unique and he thought that would be fun.
“He always had a smile and a joke for everybody. And if someone was broken down on the highway, he would always stop and ask if he could help,” she said.
“He said, ‘That’s just part of being from the country.’ When you grew up in the country you stopped and helped people when they had problems on the road.”
Once, when a lady was stranded with a flat tire on a hot day, Wagenblast burned his hand changing the tire, it was so hot. “But he said, ‘You know, she couldn’t change that tire and I could help her.’ That’s just the kind of person he was.”
“He always liked a good joke and was a very positive person. He liked to be always smiling and tried to have a kind word for everybody. And that’s pretty important, I think in this world,” Smith said.
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