Bob and Wilma were both born in Izard county, Arkansas. Bob’s family moved to Michigan when he was a little boy. Both grew up very poor on family farms. In his youth, Bob and his siblings were expected to work in the fields on the family farm. In Wilma’s case, her family worked picking cotton and helped with other farm chores.

Bob also developed a love and passion for the outdoors as a boy. He enjoyed hunting and fishing and spent as much time as he could outside, exploring nature. He always described himself as a self-taught hunter and fisherman.

Bob went back to Arkansas to visit family friends one summer and met this sweet Arkansas girl named Wilma Taylor who would become his wife the following year after a brief courtship that consisted of writing and sending letters to each other up to 2-3 times a week.

After getting married in Arkansas, they moved to Michigan where they eventually started their family. Bob had been working a full time job at a local factory and was also selling from door to door, earning money to pay his way through a 2-year sales program at Davenport College and also attended Dale Carnegie classes. Decades later, he often credited this experience to much of his business success and would recount certain instructors by name and valuable lessons he learned from them.