Former MATC employee Bob (Robbie) Reddic died on September 14th after a three-year
battle with cancer.
Rob was a
big man with an even bigger heart. Through his work at MATC and with the Neighborhood
Children’s Sports League (NCSL) he helped change the lives of thousands of
young people in Milwaukee.
Robbie was
raised in the Hillside projects just a few blocks north of MATC. He enrolled in
former AFT Local 212 President Ernie Schnook’s Foundry Arts program. According to Robbie, he was less than a committed
student as a young man. But when he didn’t show up in class, Schnook would come
to his house, bang on his door and literally drag him to class. At Schnook’s memorial
service, Bob Reddic said, “The man saved my life.”
After
graduating from the foundry program, Bob took over the foundry, running it for
more than two decades while mentoring students from many programs, some of them
his former players. It was a safe haven for MATC students while providing our
students with the skills, knowledge and castings they needed to master their
crafts. Bob also produced beautiful works of metal art in that shop.
Bob Reddic never forgot where he came
from nor Ernie Schnook’s faith and commitment to him. He was dedicated to
paying it forward by devoting his life to providing opportunity and structure
to the young people of his community.
According to Earl Ingram, the
President of the NCSL, Bob Reddic was “the architect of the largest youth
football program in the state, the NCSL. He devoted his time and treasure to
those children and their families for over 26 years, leaving a legacy of
turning boys into men.”
“Make no mistake,” Ingram wrote on
Facebook, “it was Bob Reddic’s vision that put us on the map. Hundreds if not
thousands, of young men have gone on to play college and professional football
because of him including current Green Bay
Packets player Marwin Evans.”
Robert Reddic leaves behind a wife,
children, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, and more than a thousand young men
and women whose lives he helped shape.
Milwaukee’s heroes don’t fly through
the sky. They don’t wear capes. They are the people like Robbie, hard working men
and women who devote their lives to making their community a better place.
Robert Reddic, “wasn't on the local
awards list as many others are for lesser accomplishments,” wrote Ingram, “although
he should have been. But make no mistake about it, he was a HERO to thousands
of young boys and their families.”
Robert Reddic was a mensch, an
example to us all. May he Rest in Peace.