Robert Giesler

Robert Giesler

Robert Arthur Giesler, 88, Bismarck, died July 23, 2006, at St. Alexius Medical Center. Services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 26, at Century Baptist Church, Bismarck, with the Rev. Dr. Gordon Stork and the Rev. Alan Steier officiating. Burial will be in the North Dakota Veterans Cemetery, Mandan, with military honors provided by VFW Post 1326.

Visitation will be held from noon to 9 p.m. Tuesday at Parkway Funeral Service, 2330 Tyler Parkway, Bismarck, where a prayer service will be held at 7 p.m. Visitation will continue Wednesday, one hour prior to the service at the church.

Robert was born Oct. 23, 1917, on a farm near Merricourt, the son of Henry and Johhanna (Goehner) Giesler. He grew up on the family farm and started farming with his brother, Oscar. Bob was called to serve in the military during World War II. He was discharged from the army and went to school at Wahpeton State School of Science and graduated with an electrical journeyman degree.

He worked in the Grand Forks area for a time wiring farms. During that time, he married Annetta Welk on Feb. 19, 1948. They moved back to their home town of Kulm and opened an electrical shop, selling appliances and Bob wired farms and homes. They closed their shop in Kulm and moved to the Coleharbor/Riverdale area, where Bob worked on the Garrison Dam project. He continued to work on several other large construction projects as an electrician. Bob retired at 65 but later returned to do some more electrical jobs.

His joy was working out in the yard at their two acre home south of Mandan. Bob loved to fish, and he and Annetta would go camping and fishing whenever he had a chance until failing health slowed him down. Bob loved being with his family and always had a story to tell or a game of Skip-Bo to play. Bob loved the Lord and was very involved in his church, whether it be a deacon on the church board or helping build new additions to the church. He also spent many days helping out at Crystal Springs Camp.

Bob is survived by his wife of 58 years, Annetta (Welk) Giesler; his son and daughter-in-law, Don and Deb (Glaser) Giesler; his daughter, Margaret Giesler; his grandson, Ryan Giesler, his wife, Megan (Kolbo) Giesler, and their children, Juel and Owen Robert; and his granddaughter, Jody (Giesler) Finstad, her husband, Mike, and their children, Rhiannon and Noah, all from the Bismarck/Mandan area. He is also survived by his sisters, Martha Edgerly and Esther Werner, both of Washington, and Ivy Klose, Jamestown; and his brothers, Oscar, Ellendale, and Herbert and Harold, both of Kulm.

Preceding him in death were his parents; his brothers, Henry and Fred; and his sisters, Hulda and Ella.