Korean War vet led Bedford Twp. farm supply store

2/21/2009

TEMPERANCE - Robert L. Mannor, 78, a former president and part owner of the business his father-in-law founded more then 70 years ago, died of pneumonia Thursday in Hospice of Northwest Ohio, South Detroit Avenue.

He retired in the 1990s, said his son, William, who succeeded his father as president of Hachman Farm Supply Inc., 627 West Temperance Rd.

The elder Mr. Mannor spent his working life at the business, which began as a feed mill and elevator, but now includes a hardware store and a petroleum business that sells bulk home heating oil, gasoline, and diesel fuel.

He was a feed mill worker and drove a fuel truck, making deliveries to customers throughout Monroe County and into Toledo.

He became president in the 1980s.

Working with family and carrying on the family business was important to him, his son said. Being part of the business for so long meant that he knew many people in Bedford Township.

"He was outgoing and had a good personality," his son said.

Mr. Mannor, a Bedford Township native, left school after the eighth grade to work on the family farm. For a short time before he went into the Army, he worked for William Hachman at Hachman Farm Supply, which is where he met Mr. Hachman's daughter, Geraldine.

He was a medical technician during the Korean War. He came home and returned to work at Hachman and married.

In retirement, Mr. Mannor went to the Bedford Senior Citizens Center at least twice a week to play euchre or pinochle. He had a small farm on which he grew soybeans and corn, and he continued to work the land until about two years ago.

"I've always said we like going out on the tractor in the evenings [the way] some people like golfing," his son said.

For years, he and his wife spent winters at a condominium in Holiday, Fla.

He was a member of St. Paul's Lutheran Church.

Surviving are his wife, Geraldine, whom he married May 23, 1953; son, William; daughter, Janet Kohler; brothers, Clare Turner and Jerry Mannor; sister, Ruth Reinhart; seven grandchildren, and four great-grandchildren.

The body will be in the Michael W. Pawlak Funeral Home, Temperance, after 2 p.m. Monday. Services will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday in St. Paul's Lutheran Church, Temperance, where the body will be after 10 a.m.

The family suggests tributes to the church or the Bedford Senior Citizens Center.