It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Bob Hiebert, aged 75 years. Peacefully at his home in Morden with his wife, Viola at his side on Saturday, March 12.
He is survived by his wife of 53 years, Viola (nee Wiebe), six children Ken (Celina), Cory (Alison), Ryan, Audrey (Cole), Tamara (Michael), and Tim as well as 13 grandchildren and two brothers, Larry and Murray (Karen).
He was predeceased by his parents, Cornie and Mary Hiebert of Miami, MB.
Bob was born in Vita, MB on July 2, 1946 to parents Cornelius and Mary Hiebert. Over his life, Bob lived in every area of Manitoba - from east to west and north to south and many places in between. Many of these were good places and some were simply "good to be from", as he would say, though he rarely had negative words to say about anything. Over the last year, he and Viola made a point of traveling to some of the few roads and places in Manitoba that he hadn't been to before.
Bob learned the meaning of hard work while working on the railroad in Miami before starting his banking career with the Carman branch of CIBC. After 20 years with the bank, when faced with the inevitable prospect of a transfer, he and Viola decided they wanted to stay in Winkler and so Bob quit the bank to work as a salesman for Trainex Industries. Shortly thereafter they purchased Rainbow Stationery in the old Gladstone Mall in Winkler and a few years later Bob bought the Winkler Vacuum store and ran it in conjunction with Rainbow Stationery. After a fire at the mall, they sold the stationery store and Winkler Vacuum was moved to their home in Winkler. Bob found running the business from home to be exhausting and so eventually he sold the vacuum store as a way to "retire" and work full time at Decor Cabinets in Morden where he spent the next ten years. He always said that working at Decor was like being on holidays for him. For the last six years they've made their home in Morden and Bob had been really retired for the last five. Though he was retired he never ran out of things to do or projects to start and even in his last few weeks he had several walking sticks that he would work on throughout the day - even if only for a few minutes a day.
In his younger years, Bob took to playing the accordion. He learned from a course on a small stack of 78 rpm records and spent many hours listening to other players around Brunkild, where he lived, and sitting in with them whenever he had the chance. On July 13, 1968, he married Viola Wiebe, who became the love of his life. Often when they were at a social, all of a sudden Bob would be gone, and Vi would look around for him, only to find he was up on stage with the band.
Bob was active in the community. He was a Cub Scout leader when they lived in Stonewall. After they moved to Winkler, he was a baseball coach, a Junior Rifle Club instructor, and a Sunday school teacher.
Bob loved camping, fishing and hiking and was also an avid woodworker with a constant array of projects on the go. He was always fascinated by wood and natural sticks and made many staffs and walking sticks over the years from pieces he'd picked up while hiking.
Bob was a man of few words and yet always had plenty of time to talk to whomever would come by.
More than anything else, Bob loved his family and that remained his biggest concern right up until the end.
He will be sorely missed as a loving husband, father, uncle, grandfather and brother.