A cornerstone of Chelsea

The touch of Bob Wanninger’s hand can be seen around Chelsea: the fire stations and community center he designed, the city clerk’s position that he first held and even the fact that Chelsea incorporated in 1996. But he was not the kind of man who would put his own name on his achievements.

“He never wanted attention or the spotlight on him,” former Mayor Earl Niven said. 

So, in fall 2016, the Chelsea City Council decided to shine the spotlight for him. 

Following the completion of the new community center, the council unanimously voted to name the road leading to the center Wanninger Way. Before Bob Wanninger died of a stroke in December, he and his wife, Merritt Wanninger, had the chance to see the road sign and hear the council’s tribute to his service.

“I was just bawling like a baby,” Merritt Wanninger said. “He was just so grateful.”

It was a fitting choice, as a man who was heavily invested not only in city work but throughout his community, that his name should continue to point the way to one of Chelsea’s primary gathering spots.

“He just loved getting involved and starting projects and seeing the need and knowing how to delegate. He was just such a happy, nice human being. He was truly a gentleman,” Merritt Wanninger said. “Everybody loved him.”

Bob Wanninger was a father of three — Dana, Paige and Will — a former U.S. Marine and an architect. Merritt Wanninger recalls meeting him while she was a 21-year-old pharmacy technician at Carraway Hospital. He was doing architectural work for the hospital, and, despite a 22-year age difference, “I just fell in love with him the second I saw him,” Merritt Wanninger said. 

They married two years later in 1980.

The couple moved to Chelsea in 1991, and their son Will was born shortly thereafter. Merritt Wanninger recalls Chelsea was “just a small little country town” at the time, and her husband would carry Will in his backpack around town. 

Bob Wanninger was one of nine people who led the efforts to incorporate Chelsea as a city, and once the incorporation was complete, he volunteered his time to work as city clerk for several years. During that time, Niven said, Bob Wanninger grew to be one of his closest lifelong friends and a source of support.

“Overall, he has been a strong supporter and ally to me on many, many projects,” Niven said. “Bob has been one of the founding cornerstones of the city of Chelsea.”

Outside of Chelsea City Hall, Bob Wanninger was a longtime Kiwanis Club member and founded the Chelsea chapter of the club. He taught Sunday school at Liberty Baptist Church and received Kiwanian of the Year in 2000 and South Shelby Chamber of Commerce Citizen of the Year in 2012. Merritt Wanninger said she never knew many of her husband’s achievements until he wrote his own obituary. 

“I think those organizations have a fond, fond memory [of him],” Niven said.

“He’s left so many legacies wherever he’s been,” Merritt Wanninger said.

His architecture projects in Chelsea were just a few of the many he worked on over the years, including the original Treetop Nature Trail at Oak Mountain State Park, several other cities’ fire stations and the Chelsea home he and his wife shared after their previous home burned down in 2007.

“This was just his little corner of the world,” Merritt Wanninger said of their 5-acre property.

The Chelsea Community Center was his last design project.

“He always said he would practice architecture until he died, and he did,” Merritt Wanninger said.

Despite his long list of professional and civic accomplishments, Merritt Wanninger said her husband was defined by his character: a beloved man, a good listener and always diplomatic and kind.

“[He was] the most unselfish man I’ve ever known, and I just couldn’t believe it that he fell in love with me,” she said.

Merritt Wanninger said she was happy her husband got to see the sign bearing his name installed before he died at 82. Now when she drives past Wanninger Way, she is reminded of all the reasons she and the city of Chelsea loved Bob Wanninger.

“My heart is warm. I’m so proud of Bob for what he’s accomplished and the fact that he never expected anything that people gave him. He was just so gracious when it happened. And the fact that the city did that for him shows what an incredible man he was,” Merritt Wanninger said.

Alongside all the ways Bob Wanninger left an indelible mark on the city, Niven said naming a street after him is just one more way to make his memory permanent.

“As we pass and as the time goes by, we sort of fade. And Bob will fade, but that name will always be Wanninger Way,” Niven said.