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History
Robert “Bob” Wilbur Bartling was a lifelong resident of Brookings, South Dakota, whose life was marked by dedication to athletics, business, education, and community service. Born on August 26, 1926, to Earl and Daisy Bartling, he graduated from Brookings High School in 1944, where he was Homecoming King and excelled in football, basketball, and track. His college education at South Dakota State University was interrupted by service in the U.S. Air Force during World War II. After the war, he earned a business degree from the University of Minnesota and completed training at the St. Louis College of Mortuary Science in 1952.
Bartling returned to Brookings and joined the family business, Bartling Furniture and Funeral Home, before later founding Bartling’s Shoes, South Dakota’s first Nike dealership. A devoted distance runner, he co-founded the Prairie Striders Running Club in 1970 and served as its first president and longtime treasurer. He ran the Jack 15 road race 38 times, held a U.S. Track & Field Masters record for the 30-kilometer distance, and remained active in athletics into his later years.
Bartling was deeply involved with South Dakota State University, where he established the Prairie Striders Running Library at the Hilton M. Briggs Library and began volunteering in the archives in 2015. He was honored by the South Dakota Library Association as “Friend of the Library” in 2019. Other recognitions included the Prairie Striders’ Friend of Running Award in 2007 and induction into the Brookings High School Sports Hall of Fame in 2009.
A longtime member of First Presbyterian Church in Brookings, Bartling served in various leadership roles and was named Outstanding Senior Presbyterian in 2016. He and his wife, Katherine Jean Taylor, were married in Brookings on June 11, 1949, and had two children, Jane and David. Bartling remained active into his 90s, including biking the Mickelson Trail at age 97. He passed away on February 24, 2024, at the age of 97.