Robert Kastner

Robert G. Kastner, 76, of Red Wing, died Monday, Jan. 26, at the Mayo Clinic Health Systems in Red Wing. Born in Milwaukee, WI, on January 18, 1939, to George and Harriet Kastner, Bob graduated from Pius XI High School there. He served as a staff sergeant in the US Army and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee with a degree in accounting in 1962, the same year he married his wife of 51 years, the late Jeanne Kastner (née Rades).

Bob had a long, diverse, and distinguished career in business. After becoming a CPA, he worked at the accounting firm of Arthur Young and Company in Milwaukee until 1966, when he joined the Hayssen Manufacturing Company in Sheboygan, WI, where he served as controller, treasurer, and vice-president of finance. In 1975, he was named the controller of Bemis, the Minneapolis-based parent company of Hayssen, and held a variety of positions there over the next half-dozen years, including vice president and assistant general manager of the global firm's packaging machinery division. In 1981, Bob came to Red Wing to take a position as vice president of finance at the S. B. Foot Tanning Company, where he remained for nearly a decade. After S. B. Foot, he served in a variety of executive roles, including chief operating officer of the safety equipment manufacturer DBI Sala; vice president and general manager of the safety division of the British-based chemical firm BTP Ltd; and, until his retirement in 2010, chief financial officer of Lawrence Transportation Services in Red Wing.

Bob's civic and volunteer involvement was similarly wide-ranging. He served on numerous boards and committees in Red Wing, and was particularly involved in issues related to transportation, telecommunications, and city planning. He was active at St. Joseph's Catholic Church, serving on the parish council and the finance committee; he served on the governmental affairs committee of the Red Wing Chamber of Commerce; and he was a member of the board of trustees of the Phillip S. Duff, Jr., Endowment Fund. He was long involved in the Boy Scouts of America, serving as an assistant scoutmaster, troop treasurer, and district commissioner. An avid pilot, he served on the advisory board of the Red Wing Regional Airport for six years, two as its chairman, and was treasurer of the Upper Hiawatha Valley Pilots Association, as well as chief pancake flipper at the group's annual pancake breakfast.

Bob loved music, reading, discussing politics and current events, cooking, fly-fishing, and international travel, but perhaps his greatest passion was the theater. He sang in choral groups and acted in musical theater productions as a young man, and later in his life became closely involved with the theater community here in Red Wing. A member of the board of directors of Red Wing's Phoenix Theater Group, he was a proud recipient of the organization's Phoenix Star Award. He also spent many years as a volunteer at the city's T. B. Sheldon Memorial Theatre, where he served as a stagehand, lighting designer, and mentor to young stage workers through the Technical Illuminated Design Committee, a student-named organization he initiated in order to introduce high school students to stagecraft.

Bob was predeceased by his parents and his wife Jeanne. He is survived by his brother Paul, his sons Jeffrey and Peter, and his four grandchildren: Sam, Audrey, Jack, and Avery. A public memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. on Sunday, February 8, at the T. B. Sheldon Memorial Theatre at 443 West 3rd Street in downtown Red Wing. In lieu of flowers, donations in his memory can be made to the Sheldon. Arrangements handled by Mahn Family Funeral Home, Bodelson-Mahn Chapel. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.mahnfamilyfuneralhome.com

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Celebration of Life

FEB 8. 2:00 PM (CST)

T.B. Sheldon Auditoruim
443 3rd St
Red Wing, MN 55066