Bob Hansis

Bob was born in Lake Geneva and has lived in Wisconsin all his life – Madison, Eau Claire, Portage & Lake Geneva.

He attended K-12 schools in Eau Claire and graduated from Eau Claire Memorial High School where he played sports and appeared on stage once. His attachment to the outdoors was influenced by his parents’ love of birdwatching and camping.

One of his favorite outdoor memory happened during a family camping trip to Glacier National Park at age 14. While on a backcountry day hike, seeing evidence of foraging grizzly bear led to a sighting of a grizzly sow and two cubs that sent the group scrambling.




Captain of the Team!

Bob attended UW-Madison, mostly because a brother and sister went there. He subscribed to the “fit-a-major-to-the-classes-he-took” approach and ended up with a diploma in Natural Resources.

Bob on duty at Lake Kegonsa State Park
1974

He worked at South Central District/Region from 1975 to 2001, all water programs. Some of the noteworthy projects he worked on include the Baraboo Dam removals, fish passage issues at the Prairie du Sac Dam which are still being disputed, planning that led to the establishment of the Lower Wisconsin State Riverway and a successful floodplain restorations on the Pecatonica River system.

Bob on duty at Lake Kegonsa State Park 1974

Bob met Nancy, his bride of 39 years, at Helen C White Library on the UW-Madison campus. They claim to have started the tradition of meeting members of the opposite sex that the library is known for. According to the Badger Herald, “A 1994 Playboy magazine article ranked the library the third-best alcohol-free place for men to pick up women in the country. Ever since, big names including Jay Leno and Rolling Stone magazine have acknowledged University of Wisconsin’s College Library for its promise as a place to find future partners. Read about it here!

Still Happy After All These Years!
2015



The Old College Gang
Madison, 2012

They have two grown children, one is a senior VP (that’s the equivalent of a section chief in the banking world) at Bank of America in Chicago and the other is a musician/composer/journalist in Berlin, Germany.

Bob’s current career-related activities include working part time for a river restoration consulting firm and volunteering with the Lower Sugar River Watershed Association and with the Rock River Coalition.

Visiting the Root River
2010

Other activities that Bob enjoys in retirement include binge watching TV series, bicycling, tending to his dog, Trekker, fishing, Badger football and gardening. This past year he harvested a bumper crop of peaches.

Bob and Trecker(right), welcome Trekker's sister
to the Madison Farmers Market
2014

Since retiring, Bob and Nancy have managed to travel to Florida, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Stanley, ID and Michigan. Bob’s favorite place to visit is Los Angeles—swimmin’ pools, movie stars… plus relatives and close friends who have connections in the entertainment industry.

Point Lobos State Park
Carmel, CA 2015

Bob’s favorite songs of all time are Good Vibrations (Beach Boys), Sugar Magnolia (Grateful Dead), Blue Bayou (Roy Orbison), Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears), While My Guitar Gently Weeps (Beatles), Handle with Care (Traveling Wilburys), Like a Rolling Stone & Tangled up in Blue (Bob Dylan), & Sweet Home Chicago (Robert Johnson/Eric Clapton/Blues Brothers).

Still Listening, and experiencing, those "Good Vibrations!"