Meet Your Neighbor: Couple stay on track for 70 years

FREMONT - They say the third time’s a charm, and for Bob and Bea Lorenz, nothing could be truer.

Bob unsuccessfully asked two other girls to ride the Ferris wheel with him one hot summer night during a 1940s Sandusky County Fair before he turned to their friend, Bea, and asked the same thing. That first ride above the town turned into 70 years of marriage that took them all over the eastern half of the United States as Bob worked as a designer and painter of steam trains.

“He asked the two other girls, and I thought his feelings would be hurt if I said no, so I said yes,” Bea said.

The couple were married on March 31, 1948, and celebrated their 70th wedding anniversary last month. When they said their vows, neither could imagine the exciting life that lay ahead of them.

Bob is a professional artist who was first exposed to painting by his Ross High School art teacher, Mary Williams. He took some classes at an art school after graduation, and, after deciding he didn’t want to work in his father’s Lorenz Shoe Repair shop in Fremont, accepted a job as the art director at Consolite in Fremont, where he worked for 15 years. But a chance freelance job in the 1960s changed the course of his whole life.

“Ross Rowland asked me to design a letterhead for him, and I worked for him for 45 years. He sent me all over,” Bob said.

Bob was a staff artist for Rowland’s business, High Iron Company, which offered steam engine excursions across several states. Bob’s duties were varied and complex. He designed and painted the exterior of steam trains, designed their interiors, and created models of the trains.

“Sometimes I even joined the engine crew as a fireman,” Bob said.

The Lorenzes kept an apartment in New Rochelle, New York, and when Bea wasn’t busy raising their three daughters at their Fremont home, she tagged along with Bob and worked for Rowland as well.

“I was a hostess on the trains and sometimes a secretary. I was kind of a runner. If someone flew in for work, I picked them up at the airport,” she said.

One of the biggest projects Bob worked on was the American Freedom Train, which toured the country in 1975 and 1976 to commemorate America’s bicentennial. Millions of people visited the train, which carried invaluable historical artifacts, including George Washington’s copy of the Constitution and the original copy of the Louisiana Purchase. As Official Artist of the project, Bob designed and painted the exterior of the train, decorated the interior, and created models of it.

Bob worked on several steam trains, many of which traveled through Fremont, and they brought him in touch with celebrities and dignitaries, including former First Lady Mamie Eisenhower, actor Ernest Borgnine and Miss America pageant host, Bert Parks.

“Oh, the people we met,” Bea said.

In addition to his work on trains, Bob also did a variety of other artistic jobs, including working with PepsiCo artists to create a logo when the company sponsored the American Freedom Train. His artwork has graced books, Christmas cards and magazine covers, and his rendition of the Little Giants mascot was seen throughout town in its earliest years.

“I’ve done work for Hire’s Root Beer and cigarette companies. I can’t keep track of all the stuff I’ve painted,” he said.

One of his greatest passions is painting pictures of trains. He estimates his has finished over 1,000 paintings, and, at age 93, he’s not done.

“I paint a lot. If I can’t sleep, I get up at 1 or 2 at night and paint,” he said.

Unbeknownst to Bob and Bea, that first whirl on the Ferris wheel foreshadowed an exciting life. Through 70 years of travel, joys and losses, Bea said Bob has been “the glue that holds everything together.”

“No other woman would have put up with me and all the crazy things I did,” Bob said. “I can’t say enough about my wife.”

Contact correspondent Sheri Trusty at sheritrusty4@gmail.com.