Robert (Bob) Welnhofer, a legend in the office products industry in Chicago for over 25 years, first with Boise Cascade Corporation and later with United Stationers, and a lifelong fan of the Chicago Cubs and Chicago Bears, died on October 11, 2020 at a hospital near Portland, Oregon of complications from Parkinson’s disease which he battled courageously for more than a decade. He was 87.
He was born in 1933 in Chicago, Illinois, attended Steinmetz High School and Wright Junior College before graduating from Northwestern University in 1955. He later received a M.B.A. from the University of Chicago in 1974.
He became a CPA and started his career as an auditor with Arthur Andersen & Company, rising to the rank of manager, one level below partner at that time. In 1961 he left Andersen to become the controller of one of his clients, Associated Stationers, which owned the well-known Chicago office products retailer, Horder’s. Shortly after joining Associated Stationers, the company was acquired by Boise Cascade Corporation. Boise used this platform to expand throughout the U.S. to become the largest distributor of office products in the country. Affectionately known as “RW”, he held numerous positions at Boise Cascade, rising to become a Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Boise’s office products division.
He left the office products industry in 1977 for a short while to become the Chief Financial Officer of Safety-Kleen Corporation, an Elgin, Illinois based company that provided solvent parts services to industrial and automotive companies which he helped take public in a successful IPO in 1979.
In 1981 he returned to the office products industry, joining United Stationers, the largest wholesale distributor of office products in the U.S., as a Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning, reporting directly to the founder CEO, where he was responsible for corporate strategy and M&A. He also helped this company launch a successful IPO and become a public company. He worked at United Stationers until he ended his career in corporate management in 1990.
Not one to consider retiring, in a switch, in 1991 he began his second career as a retail investment advisor with Morgan Stanley, where he built a long roster of clients, eventually becoming a Vice President before retiring in 2008 at age 75.
He married Nancy Zuehlke (Winkates) in 1953 and had one son, William (Bill) Welnhofer. The marriage ended in divorce in 1977. During this period, he enthusiastically coached little league baseball in Arlington Heights, Illinois and was active in St. Mark Lutheran Church, in Mt. Prospect, Illinois.
In 1992, he married Karen Millis (Schanck) of Lake Oswego, Oregon who had three children from a previous marriage. They resided in Inverness, Illinois until 2014 and were members of Rolling Green Country Club in Arlington Heights, and the Christ Lutheran Church in Palatine, Illinois. In 2014, they moved to Scottsdale, Arizona where they were active in the Country Club at DC Ranch and the Living Water Lutheran Church – both in Scottsdale. They also maintained another residence in Lake Oswego where he was spending the summer when he contracted pneumonia before being hospitalized for the last time.
He had season tickets for the Chicago Bears for more than 40 years beginning in 1964 when hall of famers Gayle Sayers and Dick Butkus were rookies, almost never missing a home game, but baseball and the Chicago Cubs were his real passion, second only to his grandchildren, step-grandchildren and great grandchildren whom he loved to be with.
Robert W. Welnhofer Obituary
He is survived by his son, Bill, and daughter-in-law, Diane Welnhofer, of Wilmette, Illinois, his grandchildren, Ashley (Welnhofer) Forman of Dallas, Texas, Katherine (Welnhofer) Psihoules of Brooklyn, New York, and Joseph Welnhofer of Chicago, Illinois and great grandchildren, Madison Forman and Beckley Forman, as well as by his wife, Karen Welnhofer, step children Nancy MacHaffie, Jill McNatt and Jeffrey Millis – all of Tigard, Oregon, and step grandchildren, Drew and Owen MacHaffie, Bryce and Abigail McNatt and Michael and Christopher Millis, and by his brother and sister-in-law, Walter and Alicia Welnhofer, and his nephew, Kevin Welnhofer, all of Elmwood Park, Illinois.
Donations may be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation or to Christ Lutheran Church, Palatine, Illinois.
Memorial services will be held on a future date.
In lieu of flowers, please donate to a charitable foundation such at Michael J. Fox Foundation, https://www.michaeljfox.org/donate, under Bob's name.
Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.youngsfuneralhome.org for the Welnhofer family.
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